Christian Eriksen sent his first public message from the hospital on Tuesday, thanking supporters for their sweet and amazing well-wishes after his collapse at the European Championship game versus Finland on Saturday.

Eriksen remains in the hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest, when he had to be resuscitated with a defibrillator on the field.

“Big thanks for your sweet and amazing greetings and messages from all around the world. It means a lot to me and my family,” Eriksen wrote in a message that was shared by the Danish soccer association on Twitter.

The message was accompanied by a photo of the 29-year-old Eriksen giving a thumbs up from his hospital bed.

“I'm fine under the circumstances. I still have to go through some examinations at the hospital, but I feel okay. Now, I will cheer on the boys on the Denmark team in the next matches. Play for all of Denmark,” he said.

Eriksen and the rest of the Denmark players have received an outpouring of support from all over the world since Saturday's incident, including from fans of rival teams.

Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand said the flood of messages shows that football is the biggest social phenomenon in the world. “It's the one thing that can unite most people in the world,” Hjulmand said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“It brings friendship across nations, race, gender, everything. Football is one big family... And we see this with all this recognition we get from people all over the world,” he added.

Denmark, who lost to Finland 1-0 after the game was resumed, next play Belgium on Thursday in Group B. On Monday, Eriksen’s teammates said the midfielder had told them to re-focus on the tournament.

‘Punish Arnautovic’

The North Macedonian soccer federation has submitted a request to UEFA asking for Austria striker Marko Arnautovic to be punished for a nationalist outburst after he scored a goal at the European Championship.

The federation said the outburst was directed at Ezgjan Alioski, who is of Albanian origin. Arnautovic's father is Serbian and his mother is Austrian.

“We are always against nationalism, discrimination and all other forms of insults and outbursts that are not in the spirit of football and the values that we all stand for together,” the federation said in a statement released late Monday.

“We will always stand up and defend the interests and dignity of the Macedonian national team wherever they play.”

Arnautovic scored the final goal in Austria's 3-1 victory over North Macedonia on Sunday at the National Arena in Bucharest.

He wrote in an Instagram story that he was sorry for what happened and acknowledged some heated words yesterday in the emotions of the game for which “I would like to apologize - especially to my friends from North Macedonia and Albania”.

“I would like to say one thing very clearly: I AM NOT A RACIST!” Arnautovic wrote. “I have friends in almost every country and I stand for diversity.”

The Albanian minority forms about a quarter of North Macedonia's 2.1 million population.

Tensions between North Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in the small Balkan country erupted in 2001 when Albanians took up arms and fought with government forces, demanding more rights.

The conflict ended after seven months with a deal that granted more rights to Albanians.

Ethnic Albanian parties have been part of every government in the country since it declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Serbia and ethnic Albanians have also been in conflict in Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008.

Kosovo’s majority population are ethnic Albanians, and Serbia has never recognised the country's independence.

Albania, Kosovo and Serbia all border North Macedonia.