20-Year-Old Soccer Star Opens Up About Frightening On-Field Heart Attack

National Women's Soccer League star Savy King has broken her silence on the heart attack she suffered on the field during a game in May.

King, 20, was competing for Angel City FC against the Utah Royals on May 9 when she collapsed on the pitch. The Santa Monica, California native, who moments earlier celebrated a teammate's goal, told Good Morning America's Will Reeve Wednesday that she doesn't remember much about the incident.

“There’s actually a lot that I don’t remember,” King told Reeve. “I remember I wasn't feeling right, and I remember I grabbed my leg because I was trying to distract myself from the fact that I felt like I was going to pass out. And then I remember the medical staff coming onto the field.”

Medical trainers began performing CPR on King, who was eventually wheeled off the field and taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. 

The young defender, who has also competed internationally for America at the U-17 and U-20 levels, had suffered a form of a heart attack and needed emergency surgery.

“I never had any medical history of anything with my heart, or even with injuries or anything in general,” King said.

Dr. Richard Kim, a cardiac surgeon who led the team that operated on King, said that King's issue was an anomalous heart artery.

“Savy was born with an anomalous left coronary artery," Kim explained. “The left coronary is the most important blood vessel in your heart, and when it’s anomalous it means that it’s in a slightly different location than normal.”

Kim said he and his colleagues “created a new pathway for blood to get to her artery” and also praised the first responders on the field for doing a "fantastic" job in helping to save Kim's life.

An emotional and grateful King has not been cleared yet to return to soccer activities, but she's looking forward to returning to the field.

“I was just so happy I was going to be able to recover and be as normal, and almost be like a ‘Savy 2.0,’ now,” King told Reeve. “I’ll be back and better than ever.”