Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood admits he must manage his knee injury for the rest of his life.
The New Zealand worldwide has returned following six months out and is in line to function in Forest’s Europa League quarter-final second leg towards Porto.
Forest host the Portuguese league leaders on Thursday following last week’s 1-1 draw in Portugal, with Wood beginning at Estadio do Dragao.
It was his first recreation since final October, having had knee surgical procedure in December, and the ahead is aware of his knee won’t ever absolutely get well.
“It’s a knee injury, it’s going to take years of managing throughout my whole career and when I’m playing with kids, playing golf or doing whatever I do after football,” mentioned the 34-year-old.
“It’s going be there. I’d say it’s always got to be in your back of mind that I have to keep myself in top shape ready to go.
“A knee injury is at all times horrible, you by no means know what might occur sooner or later or how you’re going to come again from it.
“So mentally, that’s one of the tough things to deal with. But I had confidence I was always going to come back. I got very close to returning pre-surgery and it just didn’t happen. That’s just unfortunate.”
Wood returned as he seems to be to assist Forest into the final 4 of the Europa League – the place they’ll face Aston Villa or Bologna – and keep within the Premier League.
He can also be aiming for a World Cup spot with New Zealand, with the All Whites dealing with Iran, Egypt and Belgium in Group G on this summer time.
“It wasn’t a straightforward injury, we tried a few different avenues to get it right before having to go down the surgery route,” added Wood, who didn’t play for Sean Dyche throughout the former supervisor’s 114 days in cost of Forest.
“It didn’t work out the way we wanted to. At least we got it now with a goal to come back to and luckily I have been able to come back with a decent amount of time [before the World Cup] so hopefully I’ll be in the running.”
Midfielder Elliot Anderson is a doubt to face Porto after he missed coaching on Wednesday.
“Today, he was not able to train,” boss Vitor Pereira mentioned. “He has personal problems and we have to respect [them]. We will see [about tomorrow], we need to wait.”
