Angel City defender Savy King returns 10 months after collapsing during cardiac event

· Yahoo Sports

Angel City defender Savy King returned to BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday evening for her first regular-season game since she suffered a cardiac incident on May 9, 2025.

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The 21-year-old subbed on in the 63rd minute to a thunderous home crowd, the team already enjoying a dominant lead over the visiting Chicago Stars, which ended in a 4-0 win. King even got a shot on goal in her 27 minutes on the pitch.

King had collapsed on that same field 10 months prior during a game against the Utah Royals due in part to an undetected congenital heart abnormality. She was rushed to the hospital and underwent a successful surgery soon after, followed by a lengthy rehabilitation process. Controversially, the league authorized that match to continue, a decision that drew swift and sharp criticism from the NWSL Players Association, who urged the league to change its protocols and order the match abandoned in the event of medical incidents that require life-saving procedures.

On Feb. 14, Angel City removed King from its season-ending injury (SEI) list, and two days later, she made her first return to competition since her cardiac incident at the preseason Coachella Valley Invitational.

King’s presence was unmissable Sunday against a stunned Chicago as she swapped places with U.S. women’s national team center back Emily Sams midway through the second half. She maximized every minute, beginning with a shot that cleared the crossbar and elicited a collective gasp from Angel City supporters. However surprising it may have been, given her position as a defender, the moment was an emphatic statement about the kind of player she intends to be now that she’s officially back.

During Angel City’s postgame press conference, forward Kennedy Fuller called King “the sweetest and most hardworking person you will ever meet,” and said her heart condition and absence from the game “really united the soccer community, and we all realized the game is so much bigger than playing 90 minutes on the field.”

Fuller, who scored a goal and recorded an assist in the team’s win, said that when she resumed training with the team, King “came back and she was like, ‘I’m going to play and I’ll be better than I was. I’m going to be faster than I was.’

“I think this moment is something that she has been so emotional about, and to be able to see her step on the field and have so much confidence — like, she didn’t miss a beat,” Fuller added.

King’s performance didn’t stop with a shot attempt. In the 80th minute, she also sprinted back toward her own goal to deny Chicago striker Jordyn Huitema a chance at goal with a swift slide tackle, preserving Angel City’s clean sheet.

“She could have played more today than she did,” Angel City manager Alex Straus said after the match of King’s status. “Savy was ready and wanted to start the game,” he added, noting that he needed to manage her minutes alongside Sams’, whose time with the club has been sporadic as of late due to national team duty. Both players, he said, are working their way toward being fully match fit for 90 minutes.

King’s incident last year, and the fallout that ensued from the NWSL’s handling of it, prompted the league to institute changes to its protocols around serious injuries that take place during games. On Sept. 14, Racing Louisville midfielder Savannah DeMelo collapsed on the pitch in the middle of a game due to a known heart condition, and the league postponed and rescheduled the game at a later date behind closed doors.

Last week, the NWSL announced an official change to its protocols, defining a “serious injury” as a condition that “significantly incapacitates or otherwise poses an immediate and significant health risk to the individual, such as a heart attack or cardiac arrest, a seizure episode, or a severe and traumatic physical injury (e.g., open compound fracture or spine injury with potential paralysis).”

In such cases, the league maintains its case-by-case discretion to postpone or reschedule a game, or to declare it final if enough minutes have been played.

King has also leveraged her experience to advocate for change. She announced her non-profit Savy King of Hearts in November to raise awareness about CPR and expand access to heart screenings. The organization has also partnered with the NWSL to administer CPR training to all 16 teams in the league.

Angel City’s next test will take them up the California coast to San Jose for a meeting with Bay FC, who also won their home opener, on Saturday.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Angel City, NWSL, Women's Soccer

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