Forest striker Chris Wood back from injury in boost for New Zealand ahead World Cup

[p]The ‌34-year-old has been sidelined since October due to a ‌knee injury. He underwent ⁠surgery ‌in December.[/p][p]His return was confirmed ​by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/nottingham/UsushcZr/"]Forest[/a] coach Vitor Pereira in a ​press conference ahead of the club's Europa League quarter-final ⁠first leg ​match against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/fc-porto/S2NmScGp/"]FC Porto[/a] on Thursday.[/p][p]"[b]He's started training with the team and is ‌available for the game[/b]," Pereira said on Wednesday.[/p][embed guid="6c85f546-48d2-4310-97e3-34e101e90f6e" url="https://x.com/NFFC/status/2041984431645250000" social-type="twitter" /][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/wood-chris/Cp7L7Gro/"]Wood[/a], who is the All Whites' record goalscorer with 45 goals, played for [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/new-zealand/rLctHkpU/"]New Zealand[/a] when they last qualified for the World ‌Cup in 2010 in South ​Africa.[/p][p]New Zealand are in ‌Group G at the World Cup, where they will face off against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/belgium/GbB957na/"]Belgium[/a], [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/egypt/bejDn7NN/"]Egypt[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/iran/xrRx85iA/"]Iran[/a] ⁠in June.[/p]