For the 17,000 people present at the BMO Stadium on May 9, time stopped for a good while. Even when the game restarted, it was not going to be the same. It was a difficult day not only for the NWSL but the entire soccer community, seeing a beloved player collapsing on the pitch and needing hospitalization and critical medical intervention.

But Savy King is a fighter. Just 20 years old, but she is already inspiring us with her courage and spirit. And two months since the harrowing incident, the Angel City defender spoke to her fans for the first time about her progress. So, what is ‘Warrior Savy’ saying?

The 20-year-old is doing well, as she shared with ABC News on July 16. King appeared on the Good Morning America Show, hosted by Will Reeve, and the defender discussed her journey over the last two months and how she is feeling now. “I was just so happy that I was going to be able to recover and be as normal and almost be a Savy 2.0 now,” King said. “So I’ll be back and better than ever.”

It’s the best thing the fans could hear right now. She is still not cleared to participate in the rigors of the high-intensity game. But she is coming along well. And she has had help all along the way, help that saved her career and helped her turn things around so fast. Sarah Smith is the Director of Medical and Performance at Angel City FC. Speaking to NWSL.com on July 16, Smith said, “For it to happen on that night in our home stadium here, we had our entire medical team there.” She further added, “It was an incredible work of that group and the timing that it actually happened to have the outcome that we had.”

King has the blessings of so many out there. The fans have kept on cheering for her for the last 2 months nonstop. Her teammates have been there beside her. So was the medical team at Angel City, and the team at the Cedars-Sinai hospital where she was treated. Speaking about them, King said in the interview, “They saved my life. That will stay with me forever in my heart, and just knowing that I get to play in front of them too and say that they were a huge reason why I’m here.”

And there’s always her mothers, without whom the Angel City defender couldn’t have had such a fairytale journey. “They are everything to me. I’m going to start crying,” an emotional King said on the Show. “I wouldn’t be here without them. I can’t even continue talking about it because there’s not enough or anything I can give them. The rest of my career, the rest of my life is for them.” Karrie King and Kim Parker King accompanied Savy King as the recovering defender went to see her teammates at practice recently.

No hurry, the youngster is taking things slow, as she should. But it’s not easy staying away from something that is your passion, after all. “Every time I see soccer, I want to play. It’s obviously so hard to just watch and not be able to play.” But this is a new experience for her that she is taking in. “Even just watching games just to have a different perspective now that I can’t play, just seeing a different part of the sport is really cool.”

We await in earnest anticipation that the Warrior makes her eventual return. Putting behind May 9, which indeed left us a bit hollow at that moment.

What happened to Savy King on May 9?

Playing at home, Angel City hosted the struggling Utah Royals in a regular-season clash. The game was negotiated comfortably by the home team. A 2-0 extended their winning run, but the depressing incident which rocked the game took place at the 74th minute. Savy King even opened up about that exact moment on the Good Morning America Show. “I remember that I wasn’t feeling right, and I grabbed my leg because I was trying to distract myself from the fact that I was going to pass out.”

The last thing she remembered was the Angel City medical staff rushing onto the field. “Savy was born with an anomalous left coronary artery,” Dr. Richard Kim said to NWSL.com. “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.”

Dr. Kim was the surgeon leading the team at Cedars-Sinai that did the heart surgery. But he also mentioned the critical assistance provided by the Angel City as the first responders on the pitch. The quick thinking of the NWSL team’s medical staff prevented possible permanent damage to the heart.

On the pitch, they were administering chest compressions and CPR. They were present for about 10 minutes, after which she was taken away in a medical car and promptly admitted to the local hospital. The defender also shared about the awareness about CPR and how it is a lifesaver at times. “Anything can happen at any time,” King said on the show. “I think just knowing how to do CPR is super important because it can save a life, and it saved my life.”

A hearty support to our champion who awaits the slow path to recovery. We know Savy King is desperate to get on the pitch and put in some match-winning shifts. An all-round winner she is!