Chris Wood recovery boosts Nottingham Forest for Pereira’s return to Porto

Nobody has scored more goals in the Europa League this season than Igor Jesus and yet the overwhelming source of interest surrounding Nottingham Forest on arrival in northern Portugal on Wednesday was another striker. Only Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak outscored Chris Wood in the Premier League last season and the New Zealand frontman has been slowly building fitness and working towards a long-awaited first-team return.

All eyes were on Wood at last weekend’s interactive open-training session, staged at the City Ground. He has been ticking off different targets since knee surgery in December and at the end of last month the 34-year-old made a welcome goalscoring comeback 11 minutes into his return to action for Forest under-21s against Newcastle, in modest surroundings at Loughborough University’s stadium in front of a crowd totalling a couple of hundred: students, Forest fans, a few from the north-east.

It had been 215 days since he scored twice on the opening day of the season in victory against Brentford. That was when Nuno Espírito Santo was still in charge and remarkably eight months on he is still the last Forest striker to score a league goal at home.

Wood’s last goal was a stoppage-time penalty in a miserable home defeat by Midtjylland, after which Ange Postecoglou was the subject of a backlash from angry supporters. His last game was October’s 3-0 defeat by Chelsea, after which Postecoglou was sacked within minutes of the full-time whistle. Now Wood could return at the Estádio do Dragão in Thursday’s quarter-final first leg in Porto, with Forest’s fourth manager of the season, Vítor Pereira, confirming the striker may feature.

“He is available and I hope that he can help us in the games we need to face,” said Pereira, who returns to face Porto for the first time since winning successive titles as head coach in 2012 and 2013, after working as an assistant to André Villas-Boas, now the club’s president. “I spent a lot of years in the club. We will see a fantastic atmosphere, for sure, and we’ll be in red. I think it’s the first time I will be red in this stadium – they are blue. It will be a big challenge.”

Pereira has maintained he does not want to push Wood too soon but his potential return would represent an invaluable boost. Last season, his most prolific, Wood scored more than a third of Forest’s 58 goals and since signing in January 2023 their win percentage with him in the team is 37%. It drops to 25% without him. Even his return to training was significant for teammates.

Chris Wood’s most recent goal for Nottingham Forest came from the penalty spot against Midtjylland in October – when Ange Postecoglou was their manager. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters

The mood has also been lifted by Forest’s performance in their 3-0 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before the international break, in which Igor Jesus was excellent in both boxes, opening the scoring with a fine header. The Brazil striker has scored 13 goals this season, seven of those coming in the Europa League, three in the domestic cup competitions and three in the Premier League.

For Wood, who has missed Forest’s past 34 matches, the ultimate target is the World Cup this summer but for now he can have a major say in salvaging a draining season. As Ryan Yates stressed after progressing in Denmark in the previous round, there is still a belief Forest can end the campaign on a high. They are four Europa League matches from securing a place in May’s final.

The break has allowed some players to reset, even amid international duties. For example, Elliot Anderson enjoyed a breather in Marbella before reporting for England duty. “The break is a reality, we can’t escape it,” Pereira said. “After the victory [against Spurs], we probably wanted a match straight away to take advantage of the good momentum but some went to play for their national teams. I have to take advantage of these days to try to prepare all players for both competitions, to play Europa League and three days later face Aston Villa [on Sunday]. It’s up to me to find a balance between the competitions.”

For Forest, excitement at Wood being in the travelling party is mixed with caution. Pereira also recognises the difficulty of the game; Porto have lost just four matches this season and only once at home, to Vitória in the Portuguese Cup in December. “We cannot expect [Wood to play] 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes; we need to manage him in the proper way,” Pereira said. “He is an experienced player, he can manage himself, his body. It is important for us to communicate with him, with the medical department, to manage his fitness. For us, he is very important – it’s like we’ve signed a new player.”