Chris Wood has been sidelined for eight weeks. This is what his coaches have said
Sunday, 14 December 2025
All Whites captain Chris Wood has now gone eight weeks without playing for Nottingham Forest – the third-longest injury setback of his English Premier League career.
But national team coach Darren Bazeley is hopeful his star striker will be back in action in time to play some part in Forest’s busy run of fixtures over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Wood is set to lead the All Whites against Iran, Egypt and Belgium at next year’s FIFA World Cup in the United States and Canada, 16 years after he came off the bench as a 18-year-old in their draws with Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay at the 2010 event in South Africa.
The Waikato product celebrated his 34th birthday last Sunday, then was able to take a big step forward in his recovery from a knee knock during the week, training on grass for the first time since his last Forest appearance on October 18.
Speaking ahead of Forest’s win over Dutch club FC Utrecht in the Europa League on Friday (NZ time), coach Sean Dyche said: “Wood’s making progress, which is good.
“He’s on the grass, and he’s had a couple of days on the grass. '
“It’s still a bit of a slow burner that one. It’s not going to be immediate, but he’s back out there and just starting the process, so that’s good news.”
That Wood was managing a knee knock that was hampering him between matches first came to light during the October international window, when he only played seven minutes off the bench for the All Whites in their 1-0 loss to Poland, then came off after 62 minutes in their 1-1 draw with Norway.
He went down holding his knee just before being substituted in the latter match and Bazeley said afterwards: “It’s been a little bit sore for him this week. Nothing too bad. It’s a little bit of tightness within his knee, so I think he will be fine. We knew throughout the week he wasn't 100% fit, so he didn't play much against Poland”.
Forest’s coach at the time, Australian Ange Postecoglou, then flagged that Wood had “a bit of a niggle, with his knee,” before using him for 16 minutes off the bench in a loss to Chelsea that turned out to be his last match in charge.
Wood hasn’t played since then and Dyche – Postecoglou’s successor and Wood’s former boss at Burnley – has not had a lot to offer about his status in the last two months.
On November 4, when the All Whites skipper wasn’t included in the squad for their matches against Colombia and Ecuador in the US, Bazeley said: “It's not a bad injury. It's just a knock to his knee that needed some rest and for him to take the loading off.”
He confirmed Wood had been managing his knee before the October window – that the initial knock didn’t occur while he was away with the national team that month – and said the change of manager at Forest had provided an opportunity for him to have a proper rest.
On October 30, Dyche had flagged a “possible” return against Leeds on November 9, just before that month’s international window, which didn’t come to fruition.
On November 20, after the window and Bazeley’s update, he said Wood was “getting rescanned,” but added: “That’s part of the process; there’s nothing untoward about that”.
On November 28, he said: “It’s just a settling-down period. There is nothing we can do to fast-forward it”.
On December 4, he said:“We’re not putting any timescales on it because it’s slow, but it is going in the right direction. We’ve just put him on the proper pathway. It’s very early yet.”
Speaking to Stuff on Friday, December 12, after returning from the World Cup draw and visits to potential base camps in the US, Bazeley said Wood’s time away from the pitch would hopefully have allowed him “to get it right once and for all”.
“He's been rested to give that knee as long a rest as it can have.
“Hopefully that's all gone now and it's just a case of getting back to match fitness, and hopefully we see him back in the Premier League in the next few weeks, or over Christmas and New Year’s.
“Hopefully it’s done its job, and the rest has taken the loading out of the knee, and hopefully there are no more problems.”
Nervous All Whites fans might note that’s a lot of hope and all eyes will be on when Wood actually takes the pitch, given how central he is to the All Whites’ World Cup plans next year.
He won’t be involved in Forest’s home match against Tottenham Hotspur on Monday (NZ time). They then play Fulham away next Tuesday in their last match before Christmas.
After the holiday, they play at home against Manchester City, at home against Everton, away to Aston Villa, and away to West Ham United, before facing Wrexham away in the third round of the FA Cup on January 10.
That cup tie could pit him against All Whites vice-captain Liberato Cacace, who is yet to return from a calf injury he suffered just before the November international window.
If Wood hasn’t returned himself by then, concerns his knee knock could hamper him in the run up to the World Cup will heighten.
He previously suffered a season-ending hamstring injury while home in New Zealand with the All Whites in March 2023 while at Forest and before that was sidelined for just over two months early in 2018 with a knee issue while at Burnley.
Wood scored his 90th and 91st Premier League goals as Forest beat Brentford on the opening day of the current season, but has only added a penalty in a Europa League loss to FC Midtjylland for them between then and shutting down in mid-October.