Christian Eriksen told paramedics to keep his boots because he was convinced he wouldn't play football again after suffering a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 while playing for Denmark.
Speaking at his presentation on Friday as a Brentford player, just eight months after the incident, Eriksen revealed how far he had come in such a short space of time to return to playing top-level football.
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"Being in the ambulance, I even told the medical people: 'Keep my boots, I won't need them,'" he said.
"I said the same to Sabrina, my fiancée, a few days later. And then I also told her it might change, if everything goes well. It changed quickly but it was a long process to be where I am today, to get the full green light and really be convinced that I am able to play again.
"I felt from the beginning of this that I need to prove that you can play with an ICD, if something that bad has happened. You can return to normal life afterwards. That is more motivation for me, to show I am capable of that.
"Of course I have not forgotten how to play football and my body is still the same and my vision and my ability will still be the same. That has not changed. I want to show that I am still the same player as before."
Eriksen has not played since he suffered the on-field cardiac arrest during his country's opening game of Euro 2020 in June against Finland, where he received life-saving treatment on the pitch.
But the 29-year-old has signed a short-term deal with Brentford until the end of the 2021-22 campaign, and he will play in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Monday as he continues to build up his fitness.
Since being released by Inter Milan in December, he has also trained with Ajax, the club where he began his career.
Eriksen was released by Inter after being fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) device, which is not permitted among professional athletes in Italy.
"My ICD is here for my protection. It is in because, if anything would happen to me, there is no need for a defibrillator because I will have my own. It is really just extra security. I am more protected here than you guys," Eriksen said.
"And that is how I feel. I feel very protected with it. I feel normal. I don't feel it in any annoying way. Only going through the airport, I have to go around instead of going through a scanner."