June 22 (Reuters) - Midfielder Annalie Longo is in a race to recover from a serious knee injury and make New Zealand's Women's World Cup squad, but will gladly endure pain to play in front of home fans if selectors back her. The 31-year-old tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial ligaments in her left knee against Mexico last September but has returned to training with Jitka Klimkova's Football Ferns to push for a fourth World Cup appearance. "For me it's kind of a do-or-die, risk-reward thing," she told Reuters from training. "I think just the nature of the time-frame there is going to be a bit of uncomfortable pain in the knee but it's all to play at a home World Cup. Drawn in Group A, New Zealand will also play Philippines and Switzerland in the preliminaries, looking for their first ever win at a World Cup and to fulfil their goal of making the knock-out phase.

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Persons: Annalie Longo, Jitka, Longo, I've, I'm, Olivia Chance, Ria Percival, Klimkova, shrugged, Ian Ransom, Muralikumar Organizations: Mexico, Jitka Klimkova's Football Ferns, Norway, Reuters, Ferns, New Zealand, Iceland, New Zealand Football, Thomson Locations: Eden, Czech, New Zealand, Philippines, Switzerland, Melbourne