The sports world stopped on Sunday when Denmark’s Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field during their opening game in the 2020 European Championship. One person couldn’t be overwhelmed by the scary moment on Sunday, and that was ESPN’s Derek Rae.
The broadcaster called the match between Finland and Denmark from a sequestered studio in Bristol with his partner Efan Ekoku. Rae described the whole afternoon to The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch.
“I feel as though I lived it, as everyone did,” Rae said to Deitsch in the piece. “I just don’t want to have to relive it. I don’t know if that’s strange or normal. I feel like I was there, and maybe it’s part of the processing and moving on and knowing that I’ve got other games to think about. That’s where I am on it. I don’t plan to watch back, and I usually do watch parts of my matches back.”
Eriksen collapsed in the 42nd minute just before halftime, and Ekoku immediately recognized the unusual fall to the turf by the Dane.
“I remember specific things that happened during the 15 minutes, but I really spent that chunk of time telling myself, stay composed, find the right tone, be empathetic, don’t speculate, concentrate fiercely, and certainly don’t overtalk,” Derek Rae said about the halted stretch. “Whether I succeeded on that would be for others to judge. The main thing was, here was a footballer who clearly was in distress, and it was flashing through my mind that a lot of people would be watching and feeling the pain and the anxiety.”
Officials ultimately decided to resume the game less than two hours after Eriksen went down and got rushed to the hospital. Finland pulled off the big upset over Denmark 1-0. Rae and Deitsch discussed resuming the match and more in the article.