Former Manchester United defender Daley Blind left the field in tears during the Netherlands' 3-2 victory over Ukraine and has revealed he considered not playing the match.
While the Netherlands edged out Ukraine in the five-goal thriller, focus was still on Inter Milan and Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen after Saturday's awful scenes.
The former Tottenham midfielder collapsed on the field during the first half and required resuscitation, with the game being postponed for nearly two hours before play resumed and Finland went on to win 1-0.
Eriksen, 29, suffered a cardiac arrest, the team doctor has since said, and is in a stable condition while the midfielder has said he wants to 'understand what happened'.
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Blind and Eriksen are close friends, having played together at Ajax, and the former United man almost elected not to feature in the Netherlands' opening match of Euro 2020.
The scenes also affected Blind due to the fact that he has a heart condition, which led to him collapsing in a friendly game for Ajax against Hertha Berlin last year.
"Yesterday had a huge impact on me, never mind the fact that I know Christian well as a friend,” he told reporters after the match at Johan Cruyff Arena.
“The situation for him is terrible. Of course, I have also experienced a few things in that area, so that I had to overcome a mental hurdle to play today.
"I had to persuade myself to play but I’m proud that I did and that’s why my emotion came bursting out at the end of the game.
"I definitely thought about not taking part. The images on television and the incident had a big impact and I didn't sleep very well because of them. I really had to overcome a big hurdle to do this.”
