New Zealand boss Darren Bazeley has spoken out about losing Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood to injury as his team qualified for the 2026 World Cup.
Wood was substituted in the 54th minute of the All Whites’ qualifier against New Caledonia in Auckland in the early hours of Monday morning (GMT). He had appeared to pick up a hip injury and seemed to be limping before he made way.
Wood had apparently hurt himself swivelling for a shot and required treatment before hobbling off. The scoreline was still 0-0 at the time but New Zealand, with Reds loanees Tyler Bindon and Marko Stamenic involved, went on to triumph 3-0 to book their place in next year’s finals.
On losing Wood, Bazeley told France 24: "It's not great for us losing our captain and our goalscorer. It was a difficult thing for the team but they came through so well.”
The Reds will have everything crossed Wood’s injury is not a serious one. The 33-year-old is top scorer for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side with 18 goals in the Premier League.
The front man has been integral this season as Forest have mounted a push for Champions League football. With nine games to go, they are third in the table and have a six-point advantage over fifth-placed Manchester City.
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Nuno’s men are also through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and are 90 minutes away from a trip to Wembley for the semi-finals. Indeed, when they return from the international break their first match will be away to Brighton and Hove Albion in the last-eight of the competition on Saturday (5.15pm kick-off).
Wood might well find himself out of the first XI for that match regardless of his fitness. Nuno has tended to shuffle his pack in the FA Cup and has started Taiwo Awoniyi in each of the previous rounds of the tournament.
Prior to the hiatus, Nuno had hinted his selection decisions for the meeting with the Seagulls might be influenced by when players return from international duty. He cited the likes of Wood, Murillo, Ola Aina and Ramon Sosa as racking up the miles for their countries, which would be taken into consideration when picking his team.
“It's the travelling (that is the problem). It's a tough one at Brighton. We need everybody,” Nuno said at the time.
“The club is taking care of that, as it always does. Hopefully we can get everyone back as quickly and as safely as possible.”
Last Friday, Wood had bagged a treble for his country. The front man had scored a hat-trick of headers as Fiji were thumped 7-0 in Wellington.
However, the Reds ace subsequently picked up a yellow card for the most bizarre of reasons on that occasion. Having been substituted, he was disciplined by referee Norbert Hauata for signing autographs and taking photographs with fans as the game continued.
"If that's the rules, that's the rules,” Wood said afterwards. “Just doing something nice and trying to sign for the fans.”
In a separate interview, Wood said of his yellow card: “It’s very interesting. We’ll just leave it at that.”
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