Had Christian Eriksen received vaccination shortly before collapse? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

Messages on social media attempt to link the collapse of Danish footballer Christian Eriksen with a recent vaccination for COVID-19.

Only hours after Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch due to a suspected cardiac event, online spectators pushing an anti-vaccination agenda were linking his collapse with recently receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

FALSE

Tweets first appeared on Twitter claiming Eriksen received the Pfizer vaccination “12 days ago” and that had been confirmed by Inter Milan Chief Medic during an interview on Radio Sportiva in Italy.

Inter Milan Chief Medic and Cardiologist confirmed that he received the Pfizer vaccine 12 days ago on Radio Sportiva from Italy.

The claims began to spread virally after the same claim was retweeted by Lubos Motl who made the additional claim that Eriksen received the vaccination on May 31st.

Christian Eriksen, the Danish player who suddenly collapsed on the pitch, plays for Inter Milan. The chief medic and cardiologist of that Italian team confirmed on an Italian radio station that Eriksen has received the Pfizer vaccine on May 31st.

And again the rumours were amplified when former English footballer Matt Le Tissier tweeted the same sentiment, claiming (baselessly) “tech giants” would “take action” against anyone linking Eriksen’s collapse to the vaccination.

Despite the claims made [without source] on Twitter, Christian Eriksen had not recently been vaccinated for COVID-19, and in fact, according to his club, had not been vaccinated at all.


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The initial rumours claimed that Inter Milan’s ‘chief medic’ was the one who confirmed Eriksen had received the vaccination during a radio interview. However, in reality, Inter Milan director Giuseppe Marotta told Rai Sport that Eriksen had not been vaccinated.

He didn’t have COVID and wasn’t vaccinated either

We could find no source for this supposed “radio interview”, and it’s unlikely that we ever will considering the radio station mentioned in the rumours has also denied that such a claim was made on any of its shows and that they had not even interviewed a doctor from Inter Milan football club.

Translated –

After 3 days keep shooting this #bufala : Saturday to
@RadioSportiva
we did not interview the Inter doctor, who therefore could never have said that #Eriksen has been vaccinated! This is #fakenews

It is worth mentioning of course that even if Eriksen had received a vaccination, it would not prove or even suggest that the vaccination was responsible for his collapse. There has been a long history of professional athletes collapsing with sudden cardiac events, including during televised events. In the UK – most notably – Fabrice Muamba collapsed in extremely similar conditions during a televised game of football in March 2012, long before the existence of COVID-19 and its respective vaccines.

To surmise, all of the “sources” quoted in these rumours that claim Eriksen had recently been vaccinated fail under even cursory scrutiny, and in the case of the alleged radio interview, have been rebuked directly. It appears to be a rather callous attempt by those promoting an anti-vaccination agenda to jump onto a current event to further that agenda.

Since the club itself has denied the claim and the radio station mentioned has denied airing such an interview, we rank these claims as false.

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