Denmark players lash out at UEFA about restarting game after Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest

The football world remains in shock following the horrifying incident involving Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen suffering a reported cardiac arrest during Saturday's UEFA European Championship opener versus Finland. 

Upon learning that Eriksen was awake in the hospital and going to survive, UEFA told the teams they could either finish the contest on Saturday or complete it the next morning. Per Reuters (h/t ESPN), multiple Denmark players hit out at the governing body while speaking with media members on Monday. 

"We were put in a position which I personally don't think we should have been put in," goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel explained. "It probably required that someone above us had said that it was not the time to make a decision and maybe should wait for the next day." 

Striker Martin Braithwaite added: "We had two options. None of the options were good. We took the least bad one. There were a lot of players that weren't able to play the match. They were elsewhere [mentally]." 

Eriksen collapsed to the pitch shortly before halftime of Saturday's fixture and required CPR before he was taken to hospital. After a lengthy delay, the game was restarted and Finland won 1-0.

"It would have been better to cancel the game in that evening," general secretary of the international players’ union FIFPRO Jonas Baer-Hoffmann told Reuters. "Take a bit of time, take a breath, look at it with a bit more distance, look at what are the options to carry on with the game or not, and if the game can't be replayed then I think also that would not be very important in comparison to what happened there to Christian." 

Denmark next play Belgium on Thursday in Copenhagen.