Damien Duff has blasted UEFA after Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest during their clash with Finland five days ago as they prepare to take on Belgium this evening.
The Inter Milan midfielder needed to resuscitated on the Parken Stadium pitch in the first half of the game, with visibly shaken Denmark players forming barrier around him as he received treatment.
And after players returned to the field around two hours after the incident to complete the game, it has emerged that the other option offered by UEFA was to finish the game the following afternoon.
And after Danish manager Kasper Hjulmand blasted UEFA protocols that allows a match to be postponed for 48 hours over Covid-19 but not for a cardiac arrest, former Ireland star and RTE pundit Duff has labelled the game's restart as 'disgraceful'.
"I don't think they were given a great choice," Duff said on RTE's Euro 2020 coverage.
"That's obviously down to UEFA not wanting games to clash. But it's funny that when they did play later that night, it clashed half an hour with (Russia v Belgium).
"I thought it was really poor from UEFA. Play the game the next night. It shouldn't have finished that day. Secondly, anybody who's played a 12 o'clock kick-off, you're getting up at half seven or eight in the morning, you're having pre-match, the lads won't have slept.
"I thought it was disgraceful. And it's only come out now, you know. I said the other day, UEFA have looked after them but it sounds like they haven't and it sounds like a lot of them didn't want to play.
"But Simon Kjaer, who's got a lot of plaudits, captain fantastic, he had to leave the pitch after 60 minutes, so I think that speaks volumes."
