Injured Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood is “working hard” in a bid to be fit for the start of the new season.
The 31-year-old has been sidelined since March after undergoing surgery on a thigh injury. He is not expected to return until mid-July at the earliest but is eager to make sure he is ready for the 2023/24 Premier League campaign kicking off a month later.
Wood took a knock in only his seventh game for the Reds. He was forced off just six minutes after coming on as a substitute in the 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur and was left with a huge lump on his thigh.
Shortly after, he then suffered an unrelated injury to his other leg while on international duty with New Zealand which required an operation. He did not feature for Forest in their remaining matches and was left out of the squad for his country’s upcoming friendlies against Sweden and Qatar.
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“He picked up an injury at the end of training. He just felt his quad, and it was his quad muscle he came in with but this was actually a different injury,” recalled All Whites interim coach Darren Bazeley to New Zealand website Stuff.
“We had to have that assessed and it looked pretty innocuous at the time, we weren’t overly worried. But as the day went on and we had some medical advice it became more serious.
“In dealings with our medical department and Nottingham Forest it was deemed best to get him home as soon as possible to get him looked at by Nottingham Forest, because he’s obviously a key player for them and worth a lot of money to them. Right now he's working hard to make sure he's ready to start the season for Nottingham Forest.
“They did great to stay up and it's a big challenge ahead for them next season. But we want Woodsy fully fit and firing and scoring goals in the Premier League as that will be great for New Zealand.”
Reds head coach Steve Cooper has previously said he hopes Wood will be able to join in with his teammates from the middle of pre-season. The forward will officially become a Forest player on a permanent basis when the transfer window opens next week, with an obligation to buy clause having been activated when he made his third appearance in the Garibaldi while on loan from Newcastle United.
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