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Chris Wood turns 33 in December, so he could have been forgiven for taking his last international break. A quick call to the coach would certainly do, with an explanation of the current workload. New Zealand played Tahiti and Malaysia in the end, a gimme qualifier followed by a friendly.

Wood went to New Zealand, scored in both games, flew the 12,000 miles round trip and dealt with jetlag. This is the kind of season he is having where everything he touches turns to gold and goals.

And why wouldn’t you want to play every game that comes your way when you’re in the shape of your life at 32? I’ve played almost a quarter of this season in the Premier League. Erling Haaland is the only player with as many goals as Wood Nottingham Forest temporarily moved to fifth place in Premier League friday evening None of this is normal.

The statistics are ridiculous. Going into full-time on Friday, Wood was the Premier League striker with the highest percentage of shots on target this season. Of every regular starter in the Premier League, he also ranks highest for converting shots into goals.

Wood has taken 18 shots in nine games, ranking just 18th in that measure despite playing at least one more game than anyone else. He scored on seven of his 18 shots.

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Go longer term and it doesn’t get any less silly. Since Nuno Espirito Santo’s first game in charge of Nottingham Forest in December 2023, only Haaland has scored more goals without a penalty in the Premier League than Wood. What started with a supreme hat-trick at Newcastle United continued in a purple match that is now approaching the norm.

The two goals that knock Leicester City they were the epitome of Wood’s confidence and belligerence. The first was sublimely sublime, the kind of finish that casual observers may underestimate for its difficulty.

In one move, without ever looking at goal, Wood touches the ball, turns and guides a curling shot around a centre-back. Mads Hermansen it would have saved him if the shot had only been curled; The wood somehow got power too.

Another trick Wood has is to leave his shots half a second earlier than goalkeepers anticipate, thus catching them before their legs are perfectly ready to dive in and make a save (like must do when he finds the corner) .

Header thrown against The crystal palace last season, the shot against the same team last week, the long shot against Fulham last season and first goal against Leicester; they all fit the pattern.

Want to know the worst thing? Wood might do his best work without the ball. Those who see him simply as a target attacker are underestimating his range.

Wood’s work rate in pressing and closing down passing lanes is amazing, exemplified by the fact that he has covered more ground than any other Forest player this season. He became a nuisance in possession and a criminal in the punishment area.

Many Nottingham Forest supporters – and I would be remiss not to admit that I am certainly one of them – feared that these elements of Wood’s game were lost forever.

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He started just 19 league games during his year at Newcastle and scored just four times in the league, also managing just three of 17 in the last half of the season at Burnley.

The deal to take him to Forest – a loan with an obligation to buy for £15m – seemed absurdly steep for a striker of his age. Forest were giving in to despair and were mocked by outsiders for doing so.

Well, maybe. Wood initially struggled for both form and fitness at the City Ground. It was probably lucky that Taiwo Awoniyi also suffered injury problems and thus kept his place. Forest have certainly targeted both Eddie Nketiah and Feyenoord striker Santiago Gimenez this summer and both would have expected to start under a manager who favors a single centre-forward.

But circumstances create bright shards of opportunity, and careers can become defined by your exploitation of that circumstance. This is what makes this shape so happy. The wood did its best to carry on. He watches the reaction of his teammates after each goal: unbridled happiness at their partner in the form of his life. Who knows how far this can go?

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