The 28-year-old T54 wheelchair racer claimed a home victory at the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta last Tuesday (July 4), securing her seventh title at the annual event.

It came just over two months after she had decided to withdraw from the 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon due to illness, having finished fourth in the Boston Marathon a few days earlier.

The 16-time Paralympic Games medallist failed to win the race for first time since 2012, but she was still crowned the inaugural Abbott World Marathon Majors women’s wheelchair champion.

However, McFadden had been forced to visit hospital twice in the preceding two months with life-threatening blood clots in her legs and decided she could not afford to risk competing again so soon after Boston.

She is now ready to make her World Championships return, having missed the 2015 edition in Qatar’s capital Doha to race at the New York Marathon.

The American will compete in the 200 metres, 400m, 800m and 1,500m events at the same venue where she won her first Paralympic gold medals five years ago.

"This year was really tough," McFadden, who won six medals at last year’s Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, said at a press conference here today.

"I had blood clots in February, right before the Tokyo Marathon.

"It was really tough to come back.

"The blood clots were hard as stone and so they had to do three operations and all of them failed which is really, really frustrating."

"Then I had to find other therapeutic ways to get the blood moving back throughout my body, so they had me on injections for a while.

"Just before coming to London actually I was off the injections so that’s a really good step forward and now I’m just working on losing the weight that I gained from the massive blood clots.

"My coach was joking with me and said I have old peoples' symptoms.

"It’s taking a lot of time but I’m really happy to be here and to be competing again."

Among those set to line-up alongside McFadden here is Germany’s Annika Zeyen, who has recently traded basketball for athletics.

Zeyen's illustrious five-year career won six European Championships, three World Championship medals and three Paralympic medals, including gold at London 2012.

She decided to retire from the sport after securing silver at Rio 2016 and took up athletics after her training partner - Paralympian Alhassane Baldé of Germany - invited her along to a session shortly after the Games.

"I wanted to train more because I knew I could do better, but I just needed to know the technique," she says.

"I was feeling that I could go much faster because I had the muscles and the power to do so."

Also speaking here today was home favourite Jonnie Peacock, who will return to the scene of his London 2012 Paralympic triumph hoping to claim the 100m T44 world crown on Sunday (July 16).

The 24-year-old won the world title back in 2013 in French city Lyon, but missed out on Doha 2015 due to injury.

Asked about what it would mean to reclaim his crown, Peacock said "it would be absolutely amazing".

"This is worlds apart from some medal that you get," the Rio 2016 Paralympic gold medallist added.

"This is in London.

"This is a World Championships on your home turf."

One of Peacock’s main rivals will be American Jarryd Wallace, the former 100m T44 world record holder, two-time Parapan American Games gold medallist and ex-200m T44 world champion.

"I’m expecting to control the lane I get assigned," the 27-year-old said of Sunday's hugely-anticipated race. 

"I can’t worry about what the other guys are doing.

"I’ve got my race planned and I’ve got the game plan going from the gun to the finish line and that’s what I’m going to focus on."

Among the other athletes in attendance at today’s press conferences was The Netherlands’ Marlou van Rhijn, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, Germany’s Markus Rehm and Great Britain’s Dan Greaves.

Rehm, 28, has won men’s long jump F44 gold at every World Championships since his debut in Christchurch in New Zealand six years ago.

He also smashed the world record each time and will be aiming to continue that trend here.

Van Rhijn will be striving for double sprint gold in the 100m and 200m T44 for the third consecutive World Championships, while wheelchair racer Hug will be hoping for success in the T54 class having won marathon and 800m gold at Rio 2016. 

Greaves is a nine-time Paralympic and world medallist and will be looking to secure his fourth title in the F44 discus throw competition in front of a home crowd.

Another star name to look out for is Ireland’s multiple world and Paralympic champion Jason Smyth, who lines up in the 100m and 200m T13 for visually impaired athletes. 

Dubbed "the fastest Paralympian on the planet", Smyth is the world record holder in both the 100m and 200m T13 - times he set when he won double gold at London 2012.

Action at the World Para Athletics Championships is set to conclude on July 23.