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Football almost killed Permi Jhooti, but it also made her famous.
The 36-year-old, whose life inspired the film Bend it Like Beckham, still has the passion that brought her a professional career in the sport and a role as an ambassador for the game.
"Sprinting down the pitch
after the ball, flying in to make a last ditch tackle as if your life depends on it, you are giving everything of yourself and there is nothing like it," she says.
"And when you think you cannot run anymore, cannot make a tackle or get on the end of a cross, you have to believe you can and will, do everything to make sure you have given all of yourself."
Jhooti arrived in Auckland yesterday to meet and train the national under-17 women's team and liaise with the NZ Football Association, as an ambassador for the sport's international governing body Fifa.
She became the first Asian woman professional footballer when she signed for London's Fulham Football Club in 2000.
"I was actually a badminton player but decided to pack it in to play a sport I thought I was less good at but I loved. It was a shock to find out I could actually play quite well after several years not really playing.
"My brother used to see playing football with me as a youngster as a chore although he now believes he was somehow instrumental in my development."
Far from seeking a professional contract, her ambitions were limited to playing just one more game after recovering from a life-threatening injury sustained on the field.
Jhooti ruptured her duodenum, (located in the small intestine), in a collision with a goalkeeper.
"I spent the next six months caring only about getting fit and recovering with the goal of being fit enough to play one more match, to tell myself I was able to, and then I would quit as I could then say I was able to play but had chosen not to."
But she played so well that she was offered a professional contract.
Jhooti says watching Bend it Like Beckham is like watching her own life on screen.
The 2002 film tells of English-born schoolgirl Jessminder Bhamra whose Indian parents plan an arranged marriage for her and a career in law. Instead she dreams of playing professional football and has a crush on her young coach.
"It does follow my own experiences very well, even down to the relationship with the coach," Jhooti said.
But in contrast to the film, there was no football scholarship to America for Jhooti. She instead completed a PhD in heart-imaging in England and now supervises PhD students at the University of Basel in Switzerland, where she recently moved with her English husband Ian Walker.
Film writer Gurinder Chadha originally asked Jhooti to be a double for actress Parminder Nagra, who played Jessminder, but she was away at the time of filming.
Even in Switzerland, she is sometimes recognised as the inspiration for the film, and remains a member of the FC Basel club. She rarely plays.
"I sort of feel I have been there and done that so should be allowed to go out and play other things now. I have had a great career and I now only want to help younger people achieve their best and play."
"I keep trying to find something different to do but always come back to football as I find it the ultimate team sport."
