‘Lucky to still have my leg’: After major medical scare, Sione Moa is ready to roll in 2026

BYU running back Sione Moa carries the ball during practice March 17, 2026. | Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo BYU’s Sione Moa had a few choice words for the East Carolina defensive back who dove at his legs in the fourth quarter of the Cougars’ 34-13 win over the Pirates last September, then sauntered back to the huddle thinking the hit was just going to leave a minor bruise. A few hours later, he was wondering if he would ever walk normally again, let alone carry the football in a college football game.

On the four-hour flight back from Greenville, North Carolina, the running back’s right thigh had swollen up to the size of a football, and the pain “was the worst I’ve ever felt in my life,” he said. While his teammates and coaches slept in their seats and enjoyed BYU’s third victory of the 2025 season, he laid down in the cabin’s aisle writhing in pain and tried to elevate his leg as much as possible. “Absolute worst experience of my life,” Moa said.

“Lucky to still have my leg. ” When he finally got home at 4 a. m.

, Moa woke up his wife of a couple months, Kate, who is a nurse at a surgery clinic in Riverton, and asked her what to do. She gave him some ibuprofen, but that did little to halt the pain or the swelling, so at 10 a. m.