Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest | England)

Huge game this one. Villa host Forest 2nd leg, Europa League final.
Forest up 1-0 from leg 1.

See that Bindon is back down in Nottingham training, so he'll likely get a ringside seat at Villa Park.
Some of his AWs team mates like Libby, Marko, Garbett & Waine may have also tried to get to this one.

https://us.soccerway.com/game/aston-villa-W00wmLO0/nottingham-UsushcZr/?mid=SOEkFMVh

Villa demolished them.

Time for Wood to focus on the World Cup now.

Bugger. Forest lose 4-0. Wood off at 71 mins (2-0).
As AV says maybe Wood's last time playing in a UEFA comp.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360973500/chris-woods-europa-league-dream-ends-nottingham-forest-lose-aston-villa

Next Forest host Newcastle. Win that and basically they are safe in the EPL for next season.
Wood is equal on 92 EPL goals with Viduka. Be nice if he can score at least more in the 3 Forest games left before season finishes.

https://twitter.com/thenichecache/status/2052465021536608418

Captain Chris Wood in a Europa League semi final 🤩 #FlyingKiwis https://t.co/F2oSnX3utU

— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) May 7, 2026

Forest (16th) host Newcastle (13th)

Wood on the pine

Wood on at 73 mins (0-0) in a 1-1 draw

That point combined with West Ham’s loss a few hours later confirms Forest’s premier league status for another year. To secure that with two games remaining is a decent achievement given where they were at times this season. 

Match highlights. Wood nearly tees up Jesus after coming on.

Forest (16th) travel to Man United (3rd)

Woodsman starts

And looking spritely, despite United’s dominance.

Wood off at 70 mins (2-1 Man U) in a 3-2 loss.

Forest host the Cherries in their final game.

Goal Highlights

Final day and Forest host Bournemouth

Wood off at 62 mins (1-1) in a 1-1 draw

Niche Cache. Chat post his 100th Forest apperance.

Chris Wood: “I’m extremely proud, it’s an honour to have played that many games for this special club and it’s hopefully 100 and more to come in the future. I’m over the moon with what I’ve been able to achieve with Forest so far and there’s a lot more I want to dream and aspire to do. It’s one of those things when you look back at your time at this club and your history with others and this has been a fruitful one for sure. It would be very special if I can achieve that (scoring 100 Premier League goals), it’s one of the goals on the future list and hopefully I can do that sooner rather than later because that will be a very special one for me and my family.”

Woodsy has one more year on the contract he signed with Nottingham Forest last season. Remember they only wanted to give him a one-year extension but he held out for a two-year deal and thanks to his red hot form at the time he eventually got what he wanted. The goals weren’t there this time around but the influence was (evidenced both during his absence and after he returned) and in that interview above he talks about wanting to keep playing for another four years (one more World Cup cycle, in other words) and a few times refers to his future with Forest like it’s a multiple season thing. He’s at the age where it’s one season at a time but there’s no reason to be thinking about him winding up any time soon.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360998742/chris-wood-unsure-next-world-cup-after-all-whites-group-stage-exit

After a gruelling Premier League season disrupted by a knee injury, Wood said he was unsure whether his body would allow him to reach a third World Cup.

“Four years is a long way away,” Wood said after the All Whites were eliminated by Belgium.

“A lot has changed in the last 18 months for me and my career with my body. I know I want to play for at least another three years, but it’s all going to depend on where I’m playing and if the body can continue.

My gut feeling is he goes out and beats Sumner's all time AW appearance record and then steps down from international football.

Sumner 105 all time games,
Turner 103
Vicelich 98
Wood 93

13 appearances for Wood to take the lead. With 6-10 games potentially per year it'd take Wood at least another 2 years.

Those figures you quote are not for A internationals (i.e. officially recognized full internationals). They include games against club sides etc. when it comes to Sumner, Turner and Vicelich.
Only Chris Wood's tally is accurate above because it only included A internationals.
Chris Wood is already our all-time appearance record holder.
NZ used to play a lot of games against club sides who would tour here and the AW's would tour the UK every few years.
Better to only count A international matches as all other countries and FIFA does.
These are the real figures for A internationals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_men%27s_national_football_team#Most_appearances
NZ INTERNATIONAL APPEARANCES
Rank   Name        Caps  Goals  Position Career
1 | Chris Wood | 93 | 45 | FW | 2009–present
2 | Ivan Vicelich | 88 | 6 | DF | 1995–2013
3 | Kosta Barbarouses | 76 | 10 | FW | 2008–present
4 | Simon Elliott | 69 | 6 | MF | 1995–2011
5 | Michael Boxall | 66 | 1 | DF | 2011–present
6 | Vaughan Coveny | 64 | 29 | FW | 1992–2006
7 | Ricki Herbert | 61 | 7 | DF | 1980–1989
8 | Chris Jackson | 60 | 10 | MF | 1992–2003
9 | Brian Turner | 59 | 21 | MF | 1967–1982
10 | Duncan Cole | 58 | 4 | MF | 1978–1988
Steve Sumner | 58 | 22 | MF | 1976–1988

And for goals in A internationals (disregarding goals in friendlies against clubs etc. as often used to be included when the AW's didn't play a lot of A internationals but played a lot of club sides):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_men%27s_national_football_team#Top_goalscorers
[Elijah Just and Kosta Barbarouses are the only curently active AW's to join Chris Wood in the Top Ten]
AND:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/128132876/vaughan-coveny-salutes-chris-wood-after-breaking-his-all-whites-goal-scoring-record
(Updated from above to include active AW's)
CHRIS WOOD (2009-) 45 goals (90 games)

VAUGHAN COVENY (1992-2006) 29 goals (62 games).

SHANE SMELTZ (2003- 24 goals (58 games).

STEVE SUMNER (1976-1988) 22 goals (58 games).

BRIAN TURNER (1967-1982) 21 goals (59 games).

JOCK NEWALL (1951-1952) 16 goals (10 games).

KEITH NELSON (1977-1983) 16 goals (20 games).

CHRIS KILLEN (2000-2013) 16 goals (48 games).

GRANT TURNER (1980-1988) 15 goals (42 games).
ELIJAH JUST 12 goals

WYNTON RUFER (1980-1997) 12 goals (23 games).

DARREN MCCLENNAN (1986-1997) 12 goals (43 games).

MICHAEL MCGARRY (1986-1997) 12 goals (54 games).

STEVE WOODDIN (1980-84) 11 goals (24 games).
KOSTA BARBAROUSES 10  goals

ROY COXON (1951-52) 10 goals (8 games).

COLIN WALKER (1984-1988) 10 goals (15 games).

DAVE TAYLOR 1967-1981) 10 goals (47 games).

Niche Cache. The Woodsman and Bindon have a new Forest manager.
Sounds potentially good news for both Kiwis.

But now Vitor Pereira has gone. There was an out-clause in his contract that expired at the start of July and they reportedly activated it at 11.58pm on 30 June. By email... because, well, if they’d tried to call him then he might not have answered and they’d be stuck together. It seems that what happened is that former Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner, having missed out on any of the bigger jobs that were going in the Premier League, was offered to NFFC by his representation and they decided that was too good to turn down. In fairness, Glasner is seen as more of a long-term option (with a three-year contract coming his way) and also has the experience of guiding Crystal Palace to a Conference League title after losing England defender Marc Guehi without even signing a replacement. Pretty handy for a club that just had Elliot Anderson poached away by Manchester City’s big bucks.

Chris Wood scored his first Premier League hat-trick against a Nuno Espirito Santo coached Wolves team and you’ve gotta imagine that helped his cause when Nuno became his NFFC coach. Therefore it’s worth mentioning that he did score in two of the four matches he played against Glasner’s Crystal Palace side (for one win and three defeats). Glasner was famous for his 3-4-2-1 formation and frankly that should suit Woodsy quite nicely. Having Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus playing as tens behind him was what they were already doing under Vitor Pereira.

Guts to the several wingers on the books, they’re in trouble if they can’t also play wing-back, but Wood has a similar enough profile to Jean-Philippe Mateta (who did that job for OG’s Palace side) to remain a key figure next season... as long as they don’t go and sign Mateta or someone else of that ilk, since they were rumoured for him in January while Woodsy was injured. This is also good news for Bindon’s chances of sticking around since a back three would require keeping more CBs around the scene. Bindon sits around fifth or sixth in the pecking order at the moment (behind Milenkovic, Murillo, Jair Cunha, and Morato in that order, competing with Zach Abbott). Again though, the transfer window could change that state of affairs in a hurry.