New Zealand's Chris Wood. Photo / Andrew Cornaga, Photosport
For Chris Wood, there’s only really one question as the English Premier League gets under way this weekend.
How do you top the greatest season of your life?
After more than 15 years in English football, Wood achieved the Mount Everest of his career in a remarkable 2024-25 campaign. He reached the coveted 20-goal mark in the Premier League thanks to a golden run of form. He found the net against some of the biggest teams in the competition, including Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United, and did it from a relatively small number of chances. He was honoured as the Premier League’s player of the month last October.
But more than that, he helped Forest reach unforeseen heights, challenging the elite, as they were in the top four from late December to the end of April. They were eventually overtaken but still qualified for the Europa League (7th), while also reaching the FA Cup semifinal. It was beyond the wildest dreams of Forest supporters – after relegation battles in the previous two seasons – and has reset expectations across the fanbase. Now Wood has to attempt to reach those levels again.
“It’s just trying to go in with the same mindset and the same mentality of trying to improve and trying to outperform what I did last [season]” Wood said, when asked how he can repeat the magic. “I had a good season but I’d like to go and do even better, strive for more and be ambitious. It’s not going to be easy, no getting away from that but we’ve got the team that’s capable of providing chances and hopefully I can still stick them away.”
Wood will deal with an increased focus – from fans, the media and especially opposition teams. He is a key player that needs to be stopped, with even more strategies devoted to limiting his effectiveness. That adds pressure, though the 33-year-old has always been good at ignoring external factors.
“You always want to continue to do more, to achieve more,” Wood said. “[In the] football industry, you never want to drop off. You’ve always got something more to achieve the following season, even if you have a good season the year before you need to do it again. That’s the pressures of professional sport.”
Wood has always been a team-oriented player, which has made him popular in dressing rooms and with managers. He works hard, leads the line and links play well, and never creates any issues off the field, in such a high-stakes environment.
However, like any striker, Wood is also driven by individual milestones and, arguably the biggest one of his career, is on the horizon. The Aucklander on the cusp of reaching 100 Premier League goals, now only 11 away from the century. It’s an achievement that has always looked out of reach. There was the time factor, as Wood didn’t become a regular top-flight player until he was almost 27, and he had a relatively barren spell at Newcastle United.
The worst injury of his career ruined the second half of his 2022-23 season and, by December 202,3 he was sitting on 58 goals and not always a regular starter under former Forest manager Steve Cooper.
Since then he has caught fire, with 11 goals in 16 matches to end the 2023-24 campaign before last season’s record haul, to bring that target into focus.
“It would be pretty damn huge in my opinion,” Wood said. “I’d be very happy with it. It’s a challenge that I’ll have to take on board and try to achieve. It’s not going to be given to me. It’s not going to come easy and I have to make sure I’m on my top of my game.”
Wood would join an exclusive group of just 34 players in the Premier League’s “100 club”, including icons such as Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Mohammed Salah, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard. The scale of the achievement is underlined by those who haven’t managed it. That long list includes Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Fernando Torres, David Beckham and Carlos Tevez, while no one from Australasia has reached the mark.
This season will be extra challenging for Forest, who kick off against Brentford on Monday (1am NZT), with the demands of the Europa League. While it is something to look forward to – with travel around the continent and big midweek matches at the City ground – it will mean a more intense schedule.
“It’s a very different season,” Wood agreed. “We’re going to be playing 55, 60 games, depending on cup competitions. It’s a lot more so we’re going to [need] a squad that’s good enough to do it all and I think we do. We want to get better, we want to achieve more.”
Despite the load, Wood won’t be scaling back on his international duties, which start with the double-header against Australia next month for the Soccer Ashes (Canberra, September 5 and Auckland, September 9). Even the most ardent New Zealand fans would forgive him for missing this one, given his dedication over the years and the fact he has picked up injuries in recent trips home (September 2022 versus Australia, March 2025 versus Tahiti, and March 2023 in training ahead of the China series) but he remains as passionate as ever.
“It’s big,” Wood said. “We don’t get to play Australia often and especially leading into a World Cup year. It’s exciting, it’s a challenge for us and we want to beat them. We haven’t been able to beat them for a while so that’s what our challenge will be. I want to be a part of that. [To come back] it’s a long way, but it’s a long way for a lot of the boys. We all sacrifice to do it and New Zealand football is good at trying to get us out as soon as possible to get back to our clubs.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America’s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast.