The BBC has apologised for allowing footage of Christian Eriksen receiving first aid treatment to be broadcast after the Denmark midfielder collapsed on the pitch during the team's Euro 2020 match against Finland.
The 29-year-old stumbled in the 43rd minute and then fell to the turf as fans and players looked on shocked.
Medics rushed to treat the Inter Milan midfielder and quickly began giving CPR as the cameras kept rolling.
Players formed a wall to shield Eriksen as he received first aid, but fans online noted that the medics could still easily be seen performing the treatment.
“CUT TO THE STUDIO FFS!!!” tweeted Ian Wright, the pundit and former England forward. One viewer, Alex Goldberg, said there were “serious questions to be asked” about the broadcaster’s handling of the incident.
The BBC apologised for showing the footage and wished Eriksen a full recovery.
“We apologise to anyone who was upset by the images broadcast,” a spokesperson said.
The broadcaster added that Uefa was responsible for what was filmed: “In-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.”
Gary Lineker, who was leading BBC One’s coverage of the match, also apologised, tweeting: “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,” the pundit said.
Eriksen is now “awake” and has been “transferred to the hospital and been stabilised”, the Danish Football Association confirmed.
The first round match between the Group B teams was suspended but resumed at 7:30pm “following the request made by players of both teams”, according to Uefa.
