Chris Wood is returning to Nottingham Forest from New Zealand without playing a single minute for his country.
Wood picked up a thigh injury in the defeat at Tottenham earlier this month and missed the loss to Newcastle United. However, he still travelled to his homeland for two friendlies against China. Wood didn’t figure in Thursday’s goalless stalemate in Auckland and has been declared unfit for the rematch in Wellington on Sunday. As a result, the 31-year-old has been sent back to Nottingham for further assessment by the Forest medical team.
New Zealand interim coach Darren Bazeley explained: “We’ve been monitoring Chris ever since he arrived but he didn’t travel with the team yesterday, he stayed in Auckland for some consultation.
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“Between the two medical departments, we feel it’s in the best interests of Chris to return home, to get back to his club and to monitor and evaluate the injury by his own club.
“Chris is not a player you take risks with. He did come with the full intention of playing. You know Chris, he wants to play every game.
“We trained but it just wasn’t quite right so we’ve taken the advice and the best thing for Chris now is to get back and make sure he’s in a good place when he gets home.”
New Zealand are desperate to have their all-time leading goalscorer available again as they are without a goal in their last five games. The All Whites last found the net in a World Cup qualifier against the Solomon Islands one year ago.
“He’s a pretty good player,” added “He’s a Premier League striker who scores goals and he’s our captain so yes, it’s a blow, but it’s football, you deal with it.”
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