The Brief

TAMPA - Tampa Bay Sun midfielder Jade Moore is almost done playing soccer.

"Now, to be here at this stage, it feels like it is written in the stars for me," Moore said.

The 34-year-old is riding into the sunset following the USL Super League Championship on Saturday night.

"It is one of the reasons I signed for this team," Moore said. "I wanted to win something."

In her first and only season in Tampa, she has certainly earned the approval of the coaching staff.

"As a player, she just brings so much experience," Sun head coach Denise Schlite-Brown said. "She is my kind of player. Even when I recruited her and brought her in, I really liked her, but I didn't know that she would do the things you would ask her to do to the 10th degree. When you ask her to do something, she isn't just going to do the task, she is going to do it with her whole heart and whole being."

It's Moore's heart that really stands out both figuratively and literally.

"As cliche as it sounds, football basically saved my life," Moore said.

When she was 16-years-old, Moore left home to participate in a player development program where a physical was required before playing at Loughborough University.

"During that heart screen they were like, 'Hmm, we picked up a bit of of an abnormality,'" Moore said. '"We can't allow you to train.'"

They put her under the microscope and discovered not just one hole in her heart, but two.

"I was not .1 millimeter off from having open-heart surgery," Moore said. "Was that going to be the end of my football career? I think in that moment, it made me think of my life without football."

Moore had the surgery just before her 17th birthday, and it was more than successful. The two holes were patched up with a 15 millimeter device and just a few weeks later, she was back playing the game she loves.

"Touch wood, everything has been fine since," Moore said.

However, it could have been catastrophic if it wasn't caught.

"I am pretty sure they said by the time I was 40, then potentially, that could have been one of those collapse moments," Moore said. "Because obviously, the size of how irregular it would have got to [would have been deadly], so as I said, football saved my life."

Since the surgery, Moore went on to play for England in the World Cup, where the English finished fourth on the game's biggest stage in 2019.

She has thrived not just on the pitch, but off of it as well. She is a certified sports trainer and an ambassador in the UK for Cardiac Risk of the Young.

Moore also takes part in a charity soccer match back home to raise awareness for the annual heart checkups.

"I go to a few other things if I get a chance to, and they put a sticker on me that says 'survivor,'" Moore said. "I never really looked at it that way. It wasn't in my realm of consciousness to think of myself as a 'survivor.' You go to those charity events and see how many of these families' lives are destroyed because of an undiagnosed heart condition that could be so easily eradicated by having a routine screen. At that point, you are like, well use your platform to help and effect the future basically."

However, right now, the only future on Moore's mind is the big game on Saturday night.

"I am just excited," Moore said.

Moore says she plans to attack her last game of her career just like any other - with all the heart she has.

"I think I am super-competitive," Moore said. "I want the best for everyone. I play in the center of the park. Usually, those players are the heartbeat of the team. The writing is on the wall. Just have to go out and do the job."

Her heart is her greatest weapon.

"I think she leads with it," Schlite-Brown said. "It's on her sleeve. She is willing to do anything for pretty much anyone on this team. She is so supportive and so kind but she can be that fighter. She is our greatest warrior. Her and Jordan are just in the middle of the pitch doing what needs to be done. Doing the work that helps everybody shine. She's got an incredible heart."

The midfielder says she does not have any immediate post-retirement plans, but says leaving the game will certainly not leave a hole in her heart.

"Hopefully, I will fill that up with the memories and experiences it has given me," Moore said.

Moore and the Sun battle Fort Lauderdale United FC on Saturday night for the USL crown. The game is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. at Riverfront Stadium.