Inter Milan midfielder, Christian Eriksen returns to club for the first time since cardiac arrest (photos)

Inter Milan midfielder, Christian Eriksen has returned to the club’s training ground for the first time since his cardiac arrest at the Euro 2020.

Eriksen was taken to a hospital in Denmark on June 12 after collapsing on the field during Denmark’s Euro 2020 opener with Finland.

The former Tottenham Hotspur player spent a week in the hospital, where he had a successful operation to fit a heart-starting device called an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD.

The 29-year-old returned to Inter Milan’s Suning Training Centre in Appiano Gentile on Wednesday morning and the Italian club said he was in “excellent physical condition”.

In a statement, the club said: “Eriksen, who greeted managers, coaches, team-mates and all the staff present, is fine and in excellent mental and physical condition.

“Eriksen will follow the recovery programme proposed by the Danish doctors in Copenhagen, who will coordinate all the clinical follow-up and will always keep the Inter Milan medical staff informed.”

He is due to undergo further tests in Italy and is not expected to be back training for several months.

Italy’s technical-scientific committee said last month that Eriksen would need to have his ICD removed before returning to competitive action for Inter.

The British Heart Foundation describes an ICD as a small device which is placed under the skin, connected to the heart with “thin wires” which “sends electrical pulses to regulate abnormal heart rhythms”.

Eriksen’s career with Inter Milan hangs in the balance because Italian protocols prevent people from playing contact sport with such devices implanted, unlike in other European countries.

“Christian Eriksen cannot yet be given the all-clear to play in Italy,” Francesco Braconaro, a member of the Italian FA’s technical scientific committee, said last month.

“If the player has the defibrillator removed, therefore confirming the pathology can be resolved, then he can return to play for Inter.”

Eriksen joined Inter from Tottenham in January 2020 and made 26 appearances in Serie A to help Inter Milan win the Scudetto.