Copenhagen: Denmark’s football star, Christian Eriksen who suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark’s Euro 2020 opening game against Finland last Saturday, will undergo surgery to have an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) a.k.a “a heart starter” implanted to monitor his heart rhythm.
“After Christian has been through different heart examinations, it has been decided that he should have an ICD (heart starter). This device is necessary after a cardiac attack due to rhythm disturbances,” said Denmark’s football team doctor, Morten Boesen on Thursday.
Morten Boesen and his brother, Anders Boesen were part of the medical team who rushed to the field to quickly resuscitated Eriksen with CPR and defibrillator shocks in an extremely critical first 13 minutes right after Eriksen collapsed on the field before being sent to the hospital.
The Boesen brothers have been talk of the town in the past few days since the Christian Eriksen incident at the Euro 2020. Not only that they have successfully restarted Eriksen’s heart, but the Boesen brothers were also top badminton players for Denmark in the mid-’90s to mid-2000s.
The older brother – Morten Boesen, was an active badminton player from 1993 to 1997. He lost to Malaysian player, Yong Hock Kin, in the round of 64 of the 1996 Danish Open with a score of 8-15, 4-15.
His best performance was reaching the semi-final of the 1995 Czech International, where he lost to his younger brother, Anders Boesen 15-11, 5-15, 1-15.
Meanwhile, Anders Boesen was once a World No. 3 men’s singles player. Surprisingly, he earned a 2-1 head-to-head meeting record against the 2004 Athens Olympics gold medalist, Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. He defeated Hidayat 15-13, 15-10 in the 2001 All England round of 16, before losing Pullela Gopichand of India who eventually emerged as the champion. Anders Boesen also defeated Hidayat in the round of 32 of the 2002 Sunrise Singapore Open with 15-13, 8-15, 15-6. Hidayat managed to exact revenge against Boesen in the semi-final of the 2002 Thomas Cup by beating Boesen 6-8, 3-7, 7-5, 7-3, 7-1 to score the third point and sent Indonesia to the Thomas Cup final.
Interestingly, Anders Boesen also defeated the Malaysian badminton legend, Lee Chong Wei in the round of 64 of the 2001 Singapore Open with 7-3, 2-7, 7-5.
However, the current coaching director of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) had beaten Anders Boesen 4 times including in the round of 16 of the 1998 Dutch Open, round of 32 of the 1999 All England, round of 16 of the 2003 World Championships, and the 2005 German Open round of 16.
Anders Boesen retired from professional badminton at the end of 2005, with the 2005 Denmark Open as his final international tournament. He realized that he’d maxed out as Denmark No. 3 or No. 4 men’s singles at most, and decided to switch career from badminton to medicine and surgery.
Currently, Morten Boesen is the Denmark football team’s chief physician, while Anders Boesen is serving as the UEFA’s stadium doctor.
