- Rikke Sevecke, 28, announced her retirement from football in January 2024 due to a heart condition detected in October 2023
- The former Denmark defender highlights the need for better protections among women's footballers when it comes to monitoring heart health
- Sevecke reinforces an important message for the football industry on World Heart Day: ‘Don’t take chances on player health’
This year’s World Heart Day will have extra significance for former Denmark international Rikke Sevecke – it marks the first since she had to retire aged 27 after being diagnosed with a heart condition.
Despite having done screenings at previous clubs and with the Danish national team, it was only in the summer of 2023 that Sevecke, after undertaking a medical with an Italian club ahead of a proposed move, discovered complications with her heart.
"In Italy, they do extra checks on the heart when you move there. During those extra checks, they found something alarming that they wanted to check further back home in Denmark," explains Sevecke.
Sevecke was only subjected to an electrocardiogram (a recording of the heart’s electrical activity, known as a ‘resting ECG’) and an echocardiography (an ultrasound examination of the heart, known as an ‘echo’) at previous clubs and the national team. But the test in Italy was more stringent: an electrocardiogram to record the rate and rhythm of the heart when exercising, known as a ‘stress ECG’. This screening found Sevecke had extra heartbeats.
While initially cleared to play at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, further tests in Denmark after the tournament confirmed the defender has ARVC – arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy – which can result in cardiac arrest. It is a condition Sevecke was born with.
"They told me to stop playing immediately, which was a shock," says Sevecke, who played for Brondby and Everton. "I've learned a lot about myself, but also how I was as a player and how I can bring those qualities outside of the football world."
Sevecke’s case highlights the current gaps and need for better protections among women's footballers when it comes to monitoring heart health. Despite playing professionally for over five years and boasting over 50 international appearances, Sevecke’s condition went undetected for years until that ‘stress ECG’ in Italy.
She wants to use her story to bring awareness and push for change when it comes to heart testing in football.
"We shouldn't risk players’ health," says Sevecke. "I played my whole life and I didn't know I had a heart condition. If playing professionally, you should at least go through screenings that show heart conditions like I have. People are playing and they are not getting screened; it's dangerous."
Heart Foundation Ambassador
Since announcing her retirement from football in January 2024, Sevecke has been an ambassador for the Danish Heart Foundation where she raises awareness of heart conditions, screenings, and takes part in hospital visits.
"Before I found out I had a heart condition, I didn't know anything about it – I thought it was only old people who were affected by it," says Sevecke. "We try to help spread awareness that heart conditions can affect everyone, regardless of age or gender."
Sevecke’s message on World Heart Day is clear: "World Heart Day should be every day.” She continues: “I've been speaking a lot about prevention, screening, spreading awareness and learning CPR. I put my family through it because it’s important to let everyone know that they can learn CPR.
"In Denmark we have free courses that help people. I think that helps anyone around them to save more lives and to prevent people from dying of cardiac arrest. It’s important to talk about it because if no-one talks about it, no-one knows. Even if you just know that one percent more, then that's going to change a whole lot."
