All Whites head coach Darren Bazely will be breathing a sigh of relief with Chris Wood set to return to first-team football after a long spell out injured ahead of the World Cup. <\/p>\n
The Nottingham Forest striker<\/a> and All Whites skipper has been out of action since October last year due to injury, undergoing knee surgery in December. <\/p>\n He has travelled to Portugal for the first leg of the Premier League relegation-battler’s Europa League quarter-final against Porto tomorrow. <\/p>\n The 34-year-old has had a tough season, weighed down by injury<\/a> and spending months recovering, netting four goals in 13 games. <\/p>\n Wood missed the All Whites’ last games in New Zealand<\/a> against Finland and Chile in March, where they lost 0-2 and won 4-1 respectively. <\/p>\n “He has started to train with the team. He is available for the game,” Nottingham Forest head coach V\u00edtor Pereira said about Wood. <\/p>\n “He is working with us, we need to manage him a little bit physically but he has travelled. It means he is available to be in the game tomorrow.<\/p>\n “He is an experienced player, he scores goals and it’s important to be ready for the team in this moment because we face a lot of challenges.”<\/p>\n Wood last played under Ange Postecoglou at Forest, unavailable during Sean Dyche’s entire 114-day tenure before he was replaced by Pereira. <\/p>\n