“He was gone; we did cardiac resuscitation, it was a cardiac arrest. We got him back after one defib [defibrillation],” Morten Boesen told a news conference, adding that Eriksen remained in hospital for further tests after his collapse on Saturday.

“The exams that have been done so far look fine,” Boesen added. “We don't have an explanation to why it happened.”

Eriksen, 29, collapsed suddenly in the 42nd minute of the match while running near the left touchline after a Denmark throw-in. As a hush fell over the 16,000-strong crowd, his teammates gathered around him while he was treated on the pitch and then carried off on a stretcher.

The Danish players had been in contact with Eriksen via a video conference, said Peter Moller, director of Danish soccer association DBU.

Coach Kasper Hjulmand said Eriksen had told him he did not remember much from Saturday’s collapse and that he was eager to get back on to the pitch.

“He would like for us to play on,” Hjulmand said. “He said he feels like he could go out and play again. Christian feels best when he's got a football close to his feet.”

Hjulmand quoted the midfielder as saying: “I think you are feeling worse than I am. I feel as if I’m about to go training now, boys.”

“Christian is in good spirits and it’s a huge relief for the players after all this uncertainty,” Hjulmand said. “There is no doubt that we have been on the ropes.”

Messages of support for Eriksen, who plays for Inter Milan, have poured in. The Group B game was halted and eventually restarted an hour and 45 minutes later. Finland went on to win 1-0 with their only attempt of the game.

Former Danish internationals Peter Schmeichel and Michael Laudrup have criticized governing body UEFA over their handling of the collapse. The players were given the option to finish the game on Saturday evening or on Sunday.

“Looking back, I honestly don’t think that we should have been back on the pitch,” Hjulmand said. “I have thought about whether I could have done things differently.”

Meanwhile, Eriksen had no prior heart issues during his time with Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, his former cardiologist said.

Dr. Sanjay Sharma of St. George’s University of London said Eriksen had returned normal tests since 2013, but the sight of the Inter Milan playmaker falling to the ground had briefly raised concerns that doctors had missed something.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God? Is there something there that we didn’t see?’ But I have looked at all the test results and everything looked perfect,” Sharma told The Mail on Sunday.

“From the day we signed him, it was my job to screen him and we tested him every year. So certainly his tests up to 2019 were completely normal, with no obvious underlying cardiac fault. I can vouch for that because I did the tests.”

Former Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba said that Eriksen’s collapse brought back painful memories of his cardiac arrest on the pitch in an FA Cup match in 2012. The ex-England under-21 midfielder had to retire soon after at the age of 24.

“It brought back stuff that I have put down in me, this emotion that’s down there. To watch it from that distance and not know what was going to happen,” Muamba told the BBC.

“It was scary, but credit to the medical staff. They have done an amazing job on Christian. I like how his teammates got together to protect him.

“I hope things turn out to be OK for him. I hope he will come through.”

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