The BBC has apologised for its coverage of Christian Eriksen's collapse during Denmark's Euro 2020 match against Finland.

The 29-year-old midfielder fell to the ground with no other player around him during Saturday's Group B contest, prompting his teammates and opponents to immediately call for medical assistance.

A lengthy period of treatment followed as Eriksen received CPR, with the Danish players forming a human shield to block the view of the scene and a curtain eventually being raised around the midfielder.

The match was eventually suspended with the severity of the situation still unclear, but it has now been confirmed that the playmaker is conscious, stable in hospital and is speaking.

The BBC, who broadcast the game in the UK, has been widely criticised for its coverage of the incident, which included zoomed-in footage of Eriksen when he was unconscious and receiving CPR, in addition to shots of his wife in obvious distress on the sidelines.

After confirmation arrived that the game was due to begin again at 7.30pm BST and the BBC's coverage resumed, host Gary Lineker read out an apology for the live scenes shown.

"Everyone at the BBC is hoping that Christian Eriksen makes a full recovery of course, and we apologise to anyone who was upset by the images broadcast," Lineker said in a BBC statement.

"The stadium coverage is controlled by UEFA as the host broadcaster, and as soon as the match was suspended we took our coverage off air as quickly as possible."

Lineker also posted a personal apology on his Twitter account.

We will be back on air at 7.25 on @bbcone. I understand some of you would have been upset with some of the images shown (we were too). Obviously these were the host pictures and out of our control. They should have stayed on a wide of the stadium. Apologies.

— Gary Lineker 💙 (@GaryLineker) June 12, 2021

UEFA consulted with the players of both teams before deciding to resume the game, with the remainder of the first half to be played before a five-minute half time and then the second half.

Written by
Barney Corkhill