Forest´s Wood to miss FA Cup quarter-final

Chris Wood will miss Nottingham Forest’s FA Cup quarter-final clash with Brighton after suffering a hip injury while on international duty with New Zealand.

Wood was forced off after falling awkwardly in the second half of New Zealand’s 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over New Caledonia on Monday, a result that sealed their place at next year’s tournament.

While Forest are reportedly optimistic that the striker has avoided serious damage, evaluations are still ongoing, and he will sit out Saturday’s game at the Amex Stadium.

Speaking at Thursday’s pre-match press conference, boss Nuno Espirito Santo said of Wood: “He went for a scan today. We are still waiting. He has been to a specialist.

“We will wait on the information and see, but he will not be available for this game. He felt a kick really hard on his hip, so there is pain there. We have to wait.”

Wood has been instrumental to Forest’s surprise bid for Champions League qualification and their run to the last eight of the FA Cup – a competition they last won in 1959.

He has scored 18 goals in all competitions this season, averaging 0.66 goals per game.

Six of those efforts have been with his head, the most of any Premier League player across all competitions in 2024-25, with Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland among a group of seven players on four headed goals.

With Wood sidelined on Saturday, even greater responsibility will fall upon Morgan Gibbs-White, who has scored five goals and provided seven assists for Forest this campaign.

Gibbs-White was recently named in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad but failed to feature in victories over Albania and Latvia, but Nuno does not believe the former Wolves man needs to prove his international coach wrong.

“We are proud of all of our players that went away in the international break. Morgan went, and he was in the squad, and hopefully, he gets a chance in the future,” Nuno said.

“With Morgan, I know him so well, and he knows me. We don’t need to talk. For me, Morgan is a top, top player with so much talent and quality.

“The level of performance and quality he has been giving to us with and without the ball… I admire Morgan.

“He doesn’t have to prove anybody wrong. This is not the state of mind that he should have.

“He has to compete and play and give his team-mates and Nottingham Forest everything he has. Things will come naturally.”

After Saturday’s clash with Brighton, Forest host Manchester United in the Premier League on Tuesday before visiting fellow top-four hopefuls Aston Villa four days later.