Christian Eriksen got me thinking about my mortality

Christian Eriksen’s shocking cardiac arrest has got me thinking differently about my own journey with football.

In the words of the wise Roger Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon, often times I feel like “I’m too old for this s**t” whenever it comes to anything related to physical exercise. I’m turning 35 in November and age is catching up with me when it comes to doing our boot reviews.

Football’s a very dynamic and physical sport and my sedentary lifestyle makes it hard to keep in shape for the gruelling demands of the sport. On top of BOOTHYPE, I run Awesome Sauce, a digital marketing consultancy. Business has been good but that also means 12-hour days, sitting in the chair. Recent Covid restrictions have also limited our time on the pitch. I’ve been feeling my body weaken quite a bit with little niggles and pulls from the lightest of workouts.

My experiences with my aching body has gotten me face to face with my mortality more so than I was comfortable with. So imagine the shock when I woke up to view Euro 2020 match highlights on Sunday morning, only to read about the on-pitch collapse of Christian Eriksen.

Here was an elite athlete, in his physical prime, having a cardiac arrest halfway through one of the most important days of his career.

As I went deeper down the rabbit hole on Google Search and Twitter, I lay in bed helpless, lost and left with profound sadness. It shook me to no end. I was on the verge of tears, watching his honourable Danish teammates forming a circle around him as he was being revived by the team doctor. I’m also sure that scenes of his distraught wife crying by the sidelines will haunt me to this day.

I wish Eriksen all the best and that he recovers with little to no side effects.

But then I got thinking again. What if that was me, or one of my teammates I played with regularly at training? I don’t think we’ll be so lucky to have the level of medical attention Eriksen received at such quick notice.

As amateurs, we’re nowhere near the fitness levels of these pros. Yet we often throw caution to the wind and go full pelt despite not having the requisite fitness to execute the same moves as they athletes on TV.

We buy the latest and best football boots to give us an edge on the field but we neglect the most important tool that has to be of the top grade quality – our body. If you can’t run, perhaps clock in daily walks to ensure your body gets a regular movement and exercise. And while you’re at it with football, buy the right boots that fits your foot shape and the type of pitch you’re playing on and not just because they look great on your idols. If you’re not sure what works for you, don’t hesitate to ping us on Instagram at @boothypeofficial or our Whatsapp (floating link available on all our pages).

It’s the little things that add up to create the biggest impact over time. And it’s this realisation that has got me to take a little break from training and slowly work on conditioning. We’ll still have Jay holding the fort while we have a back catalogue of boots coming up like the Puma King Classics on my end for review. In the meantime, I am getting my body back up to speed to get reviews done for you readers for upcoming releases by adidas and Nike.

We’ve been in the company of death too often in the last 18 months. Let’s not invite it further. Be safe, be well and enjoy your football. I hope to see you soon.

And alas, get well soon, Christian.