Christian Eriksen is in the spotlight again three years on from suffering a cardiac arrest, the Denmark ace is eager to prove he's still got it on his Euros return

One June 12, 2021, Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020His return to a European Championships has not come without some criticismLISTEN to It’s All Kicking Off! How Southgate made it enjoyable to play for England again 

It was to be a selection not without controversy, that's for sure.

Chief among the dissenting voices at manager Kasper Hjulmand's decision to call up Christian Eriksen was former Real Madrid midfielder Thomas Gravesen. Furious is the word to use.

'(Hjulmand) chose to take a player who has sat on the bench at Manchester United, Christian Eriksen, just to maintain relations,' Gravesen told Tipsbladet.

'The Christian Eriksen we all know, he is no longer there. Christian Eriksen doesn't play football anymore. Christian Eriksen sits on the bench and watches football.'

Eriksen has given little attention to the likes of Gravesen, instead focusing on his journey back to the European Championships having left the last instalment of this tournament on a stretcher following a cardiac arrest against Finland.

Christian Eriksen will play in a European Championships today for the first time since collapsing in a group stage match in Copenhagen three years ago

He was given CPR by medics who ran on to the pitch at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen

June 12, 2021, is a day Danish football will never forget, the day where Eriksen collapsed on the pitch and momentarily lay limp as team-mates burst into tears at Copenhagen's Parken Stadium.

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He quickly received life-saving treatment on the pitch before eventually being resuscitated and taken to hospital.

'Well, what should I say? He was gone,' Denmark's team doctor Morten Boesen said at the time.

'And we did cardiac resuscitation and it was cardiac arrest. How close were we? I don't know.'

The Dane required 13 minutes of CPR and also received a shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED) after collapsing in the first half of the game before he was taken to hospital in a stable condition.

The AED works by sending electrical shocks to the heart to make it start pumping again - effectively rebooting it when it fails Without this shock, Eriksen wouldn't have stabilised. His life had forever changed in that moment.

Then of Inter Milan he would leave to return to English football, eventually ending up at Brentford before a move to Manchester United materialised.

By now Eriksen was living and playing freely having been fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) device.

Eriksen's team-mates shielded him for privacy during the distressing scenes against Finland

Eriksen's partner Sabrina Kvist rushed out on to the Copenhagen pitch to be beside him

It is a type of pacemaker intended to prevent fatal cardiac arrests by discharging a jolt to restore regular heart rhythm.

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And so, safe in the knowledge that preventive measures had been taken to limit the possibility of a repeat, Eriksen made his competitive return to football with Brentford just 259 days after he collapsed.

'I think it gave me… let's say the appreciation of being alive and being with my family,' he reflected, prior to the 2022 World Cup. 'And I think everything else is just moved to the side.

'To have the possibility to go back and be who I was before was really the aim.

'My first aim was always to be a boyfriend and a dad. It's still very special to be at the World Cup. The national team is something I'm just very happy to be part of again.'

There was an emotional attachment to Eriksen at that stage and few were critical of the decision to call him up. In fact, many championed it as he went on to play every minute of their three group games before they were eliminated.

But there is a sentiment in some quarters now that Eriksen is no longer the same player, no longer the effective midfielder he was in years gone by.

At Manchester United there have been question marks about Eriksen's ability to keep up with the play and how he often looks lost defensively when a team breaks on them in transition.

It has not been an easy journey back to this point having spent a lot of this season stuck on the bench at Manchester United having fallen down the pecking order under Erik ten Hag

He has spent much of the campaign as a cheerleader on the sidelines with teenage sensation Kobbie Mainoo usurping him.

'I have had a conversation with Erik [ten Hag] to say that I am of course dissatisfied with the situation and that I would like to play as much as possible,' Eriksen said earlier this season.

'But also that I am available and must be available for the team, which I am and always will be.

'He said it was the team he had chosen, and Kobbie is doing well, and the rest of the midfield is also doing well, so there is a battle for places, which is to be expected when you play in a top club. There is great competition in the team.'

And so Eriksen pitches up in Germany with critics questioning his selection, questioning Hjulmand's loyalty even if he holds legendary status with the national team.

It was perhaps why Eriksen's celebration 11 days ago at Parken Stadium, the scene of his cardiac arrest three years ago, when he scored the winning goal to defeat Sweden in a pre-Euros warm-up game.

Adding to his earlier assist, Eriksen rolled back the years and put on a show, scoring his 41st goal in his 129th international match.

He fired a shot back at his critics, though, by scoring the winner versus Sweden this month

Eriksen is keen to look forward, not back, as Denmark look to make another deep Euros run

'It was good to see him play 90 minutes again,' Rasmus Hojlund, a team-mate for club and country, said.

'He is a player with an incredible amount of quality, and I would describe him as world class.'

Denmark need Eriksen to step up and be the leader he has long been for them if they are to mirror their semi-final run three years ago, then spurred on by his collapse.

It's been a long road back for Eriksen, one that hasn't been short of ups and downs, but on Sunday against Slovenia the stage is set for him to show Gravesen and Co he's not reached the end just yet.