[Source: Reuters]

Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood will miss their FA Cup quarter-final against Brighton & Hove Albion after suffering an injury on international duty with New Zealand, club boss Nuno Espirito Santo said on Thursday.

Wood has been in excellent form this season with 18 goals for Forest in the Premier League, where the club sit third in the standings as they close in on Champions League qualification.

Wood also netted a hat-trick when Forest thrashed Brighton 7-0 in the league last month.

The 33-year-old helped New Zealand qualify for the 2026 World Cup during the international break, netting a hat-trick against Fiji in a 7-0 demolition, but the team’s captain limped off during Monday’s win over New Caledonia.

“He went for a scan today, we are still waiting. He has been to a specialist for a scan. We will wait on the information and see,” Espirito Santo said ahead of Saturday’s game.

“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.”

Although Wood has yet to score in the FA Cup, he had netted in both their penalty shootout wins over Exeter City and Ipswich Town, stepping up to take Forest’s first spot kick on both occasions.

As players return from international duty, Espirito Santo said they were still waiting to see if there are any other injury concerns.
“Every time there is an international break we have to assess,” he said.

“Many of them just arrived today. We are still waiting on (Paraguay’s) Ramon Sosa tomorrow and we will assess all of them.”

Morgan Gibbs-White did not play for England against Albania and Latvia despite a late call-up and Espirito Santo said that should not affect his performances for Forest and that he does not need to prove England boss Thomas Tuchel wrong.

“Hopefully he gets a chance in the future… He doesn’t have to prove anybody wrong. This is not the state of mind that he should have,” the Portuguese manager said.

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

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