Wood is set to be one of only a handful of players to have played at both the 2010 and 2026 World Cups and he’s looking forward to being back on that stage.
Forest draw Man City in the semis at Wembley, which they'll be relieved with after the possibility of having to play Bournemouth.
The match is scheduled for the end of April. Wood's injury not as bad as first feared apparently, so fingers crossed he's back well before then. Forest with a huge month in the PL (Man U, Villa, Everton and Tottenham) which will go a long way towards deciding their champions league ambitions for next season.
After Forest defeated Brighton & Hove Albion in a penalty shootout in their quarterfinal without their Kiwi striker on Saturday (Sunday NZ time), coach Nuno Espírito Santo indicated in interviews that he would also miss their next English Premier League match against Manchester United on Tuesday (8am Wednesday NZ time).
Asked by ForestTV how Wood was, Nuno said: "Not very good. We miss him and I hope that he can join us soon".
In another interview, he said the 33-year-old would be assessed "day by day"
"It is all about the pain he has. It was a big impact on his hip and it is very painful. "We have to assess him. We are gutted that Chris is not here with us.”
After playing United midweek, Forest travel to ninth-placed Aston Villa on Saturday (4.30am Sunday NZ time).
During his 17 years in English football, Wood has never played in any of the iconic fixtures that are held at the 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium each season – the FA and League Cup finals and the playoffs for promotion from the Championship, League One and League Two.
He did play there twice when London Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur used it as their home venue while their new stadium was being constructed in 2017 and 2018.
Well qualifying for the 2024/25 Champions League was worth a minimum£15.7M. Expect it will be even more next season.
I guess what Forest will want to avoid is doing a Leicester City. Being in the Champions League (if they do qualify) and then a few seasons later relegated. I'm guessing LC over spent on players at some point??
Forest (3rd) host Manchester United (13th). Unfortunately sounds like Wood will still be out.
Forest, who were battling relegation last season, are 10 points clear of sixth-place Newcastle. The top five are likely to qualify for next season's Champions League.
Elanga had the option to pass to a very open Gibbs-White I think it was for about 25 metres of his run, and he used him as a decoy and smashed it in the back of the net! Might be fewer Elanga assists headed his way now the lad’s got a taste for goals.
I heard a rumour today that Forest are after Nunez from Liverpool. A nice striking partner for Wood maybe?
Darwin Nunez - scored against NZ at the 2019 FIFA u-20 World Cup in Uruguay's 2-0 win. One of only two goals NZ conceded in the group stage. Score against NZ in age group football - go on to play for Liverpool seems to be the rule. Mo Salah scored for Egypt against NZ at the 2012 London Olympics in a 1-1 draw (his first goal on English soil maybe?).
Nuno's press conference earlier on pre Aston Villa match this weekend: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18qfH66zAq/ Nothing definite on Chris' injury - being assessed "day-to-day". Sounds possible he might be on the bench.
Forest fans are still livid that Wood got injured playing "pub football against amateurs" on the other side of the world. Not quite true but I appreciate what it must be like when you are top four EPL with possible Champions League up for grabs and your top goal scorer gets injured playing New Caledonia. Tough for Wood too. Playing CL next year would be amazing
England's 5th spot in the Champions League for next season was officially confirmed today. Good news for Forest. Hopefully Wood back for the run-in sooner rather than later.
Forest fans are still livid that Wood got injured playing "pub football against amateurs" on the other side of the world. Not quite true but I appreciate what it must be like when you are top four EPL with possible Champions League up for grabs and your top goal scorer gets injured playing New Caledonia. Tough for Wood too. Playing CL next year would be amazing
Forest fans are still livid that Wood got injured playing "pub football against amateurs" on the other side of the world. Not quite true but I appreciate what it must be like when you are top four EPL with possible Champions League up for grabs and your top goal scorer gets injured playing New Caledonia. Tough for Wood too. Playing CL next year would be amazing
Knows sweet fudge all about NZ football or the Woodman’s desperation to play for his national team when ever possible. Sutton’s attitude is why England haven’t won shark since 1966.
I’m quite sure that Wood could have easily declined the two finals games with no questions asked from Baze, NZF or us. Sutton needs to STFU.
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So close, but nowhere near done yet. Quite the chasing pack. Chelsea, City, Newcastle with a game in hand. Villa and Fulham further back but in form.
Elanga has been in white hot form. Can Gibbs-White, Aina, Wood, Hudson-Odoi or the others- Yates, Anderson, Silva, Williams, Milenkovic, Murillo (pretty sure they’ve all scored!) be the difference this time?
Since Wood’s injury, winger Anthony Elanga and fellow striker Taiwo Awoniyi have also been struck down by injury.
Asked for an update on the trio, Nuno said: “Yeah, we're still assessing all of them. They are really struggling with some problems, some small, some not so small, but we have to assesss them. We have one more day and then we can see if they can be available for the game.”
Asked if he was “hopeful” of any facing Everton, Nuno replied: “
“We're hopeful on all of them. It could be all of them, it could be none, we don’t know. It depends on how they recover and how they are feeling.”
The bigger worry is no Aina. Perhaps the most underrated player in the Premier League. Though Moreno and Williams are no slouches by any means.
Oh yeah, forgot about Aina.
Wasn’t mentioned in Coochie’s article above, so 🤷♂️. Not on you. Realised when I saw the 11. But yeh if your wide players are important, their combination with their FBs is crucial. Hopefully won’t be a factor today.
Forest quite disjointed and haven’t really woken up yet. Dominguez and Sels apart, nobody really on song, but signs they were starting to wake up at the end of their half. Moyes’ teams are always well drilled and Forest will have to step up from what they’ve produced this half to win this.
To a degree. Don’t know if he got a touch in the box. Don’t remember a pass to him in a scoring position. Makes you worried Forest will go down next year.
From results over the last few days, Forest have dropped out of the UCL spots, and will face a battle to get back up there or even get a Europa League spot (6th). They currently only shade Villa (7th) on GD.
Of course if they beat Spurs, Forest would go back up to 3rd. Tight
