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

King’s presence was inescapable Sunday against a stunned Chicago as she traded places with U.S. women’s national team center back Emily Sams midway through the second half. She maximized every minute, starting with a shot that cleared the crossbar and drew a collective gasp from Angel City fans. As surprising as 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.

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At Angel City’s postgame press conference, forward Kennedy Fuller called King “the sweetest, hardest-working person you’ve ever met,” and said his heart condition and absence from the game “really united the soccer community, and we all realized that the game is way more important than playing 90 minutes on the field.”

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

“I think that moment was something that moved her so much and to be able to see her walk out onto the field and have so much confidence – like she hadn’t missed anything,” Fuller added.

King’s performance didn’t stop with one shot attempt. In the 80th minute, she also sprinted toward her own goal to deny Chicago Stars forward Jordyn Huitema a chance to score with a quick sliding tackle, preserving Angel City’s clean sheet.

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“She could have played more today than she did,” Angel City manager Alex Straus said after the game about King’s status. “Savy was ready and wanted to start the match,” he added, emphasizing that he had to manage his minutes alongside Sams, whose time with the club has been sporadic of late due to his national team duty. Both players, he said, strive to be in top shape for 90 minutes.

The King incident last year and the aftermath of the NWSL’s handling of that incident prompted the league to change its protocols regarding serious injuries occurring during matches. On September 14, Racing Louisville midfielder Savannah DeMelo collapsed on the field in the middle of a game due to a known heart condition, and the league postponed and rescheduled the game to 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 disables or poses an immediate and significant risk to the health of the individual, such as a heart attack or cardiac arrest, an episode of seizures, or a serious and traumatic physical injury (for example, an open fracture or spinal injury with potential paralysis). »

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

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King herself also used her experience to advocate for change. She announced her nonprofit Savy King of Hearts in November to raise awareness of CPR and expand access to heart screenings. The organization also partnered with the NWSL to administer CPR training to the league’s 16 teams.

Angel City’s next test takes them up the California coast to San Jose for a meeting with Bay FC, who also won their home opener, on Saturday March 21.

This article was originally published in The Athletic.

Angel City, NWSL, women’s soccer

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