Savy King's Medical Emergency Took Her out of the Game Before She Was Cleared to Return

In May 2025, the Angel City Football Club defender Savy King collapsed on the field in an apparent medical emergency and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. Almost a year later, she returned to soccer and to her team, but some sports fans are a little confused about what happened to Savy King and what her health is like now.

At the time, Savy stopped in the middle of a game and slowly made her way to the ground, where she lay down. There was no dramatic movement on her part, no obvious in-game spat to cause an injury, and nothing to visibly show fans in the stands what had happened to her. She made it through her medical emergency, but she was unable to play for almost a year.

Savy was just 20 years old when she went to kick a ball on the field and went down. According to the retelling of her experience to Cedars-Sinai Hospital, everything went back for her. She was experiencing a heart attack, despite being young and healthy in all other aspects of her life. She was diagnosed with an anomalous left coronary artery.

Per Cedars-Sinai, Savy's doctor, Seth Lichtenstein, explained, "Her left coronary artery was so narrow that it was unable to deliver blood to the heart effectively."

Savy underwent surgery for the surgeons to create a different pathway in her heart for the artery. She then had six weeks of physical therapy at home, followed by three months of monitored exercise at the hospital for three days each week.

Despite the health setback that Savy experienced, she returned to the game in March 2026. According to ESPN, Savy finished her cardiac treatment and recovery in the summer of 2025. This made her eligible to return for her first match in early 2026. Savy told the outlet that she was nervous to return, but that she put in the work so she could be able to play again.

"The last 10 months have been crazy for me," she said. "A lot of hard work. A lot of perseverance. A lot of blood, sweat and tears that people didn't see. But I felt as ready as I would ever be in that moment, and I didn't want to let that fear and me being afraid to play again stop me from what I wanted to do."

When Savy made her return to soccer, she posted about her outlook on life and on the game in her Instagram Stories. She wrote that she knows "Life is a gift," and she plans to use her experience to show other people that it's possible to come back from such a serious setback in life.

Savy started the nonprofit Savy King of Hearts in late 2025. The organization is dedicated to creating awareness for CPR training and health screenings, particularly for the heart, for soccer players. It's now a big part of Savy's life as she continues to work on her soccer career with the Angel City FC.