Conspiracy theorists are exploiting Christian Eriksen’s collapse but are forgetting one key detail

Football held its breath on Saturday evening after Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch during his nation’s Euro 2020 match with Finland following a cardiac arrest.

The Inter Milan star received CPR on the pitch with the medical team confirming that he “was gone” before being brought back by a defibrillator and taken to a hospital in Copenhagen where he has continued to recover. Eriksen is now awake and has been talking to friends, family and thanking supporters for their good wishes.

The shocking scenes left many speechless but anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists were already spreading rumours about what happened to Eriksen just hours after the incident.

As Vice reports, the rumour began after a Czech theoretical theorist named Lubos Motl tweeted that the chief medic and cardiologist at Inter Milan had told Radio Sportiva that Eriksen had been given the Pfizer vaccine on 31st May.

Lubos Motl/Twitter/Screenshot

This is completely false and Motl has since deleted the tweets but that hasn’t stopped it from being widely spread on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Telegram. Not only did Eriksen not have coronavirus, he hasn’t received the Pfizer or any type of Covid vaccine, for that matter.

Inter’s director Giuseppe Marotta told Rai Sport: “Eriksen didn’t have Covid and wasn’t vaccinated either.”

Radio Sportiva since confirmed that they never reported this. Motl added that his source “could have been untrue” but later tweeted that the story was “not settled for me at this moment.”

Despite marginally backing down on the claims, the conspiracy has since been shared by several controversial individuals including right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins, author Alex Berenson and former footballer turned conspiracy theorist Matt Le Tissier.

Covid-19 denialists and anti-vaxxers have become obsessed with the rare reports of heart inflammation (myocarditis) for those who have received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. 226 cases of the condition have been reported in people under the age of 30 according to the CDC, who have set up an emergency meeting to address the situation.

Regardless, this has nothing to do with what happened to Eriksen on Saturday as the Covid vaccine has been nowhere near the 29-year-old.