For a few moments, nobody quite knew what was happening. Christian Eriksen, the Danish playmaker, had fallen to the turf. The stadium fell silent.
Then, the world watched as medics sprinted onto the pitch, defibrillator in hand. The British Heart Foundation has since praised the rapid response, but what struck me wasn't just the medical efficiency. It was the sudden, collective realisation that behind every headline, there is a human being.
Eriksen is now conscious and stable, we are told. But the cultural shift this represents is profound. In the past, sudden cardiac arrest on a football field was a quiet tragedy.
Now, it is a catalyst for conversation about preparedness, about the defibrillators that sit in offices and schools, gathering dust. The human cost of this event is nil, thank goodness. But the social cost?
That is measured in the way we will now look at those yellow boxes on the wall, and think: what if it's me?
