Why Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood won’t feature against Newcastle United

Newcastle United travel to the City Ground on Friday night for an 8pm kick-off against the side they defeated 2-0 on the opening day of the season. Goals from Fabian Schar and Callum Wilson secured Newcastle all three points at St James’ Park against a Forest side that were still adapting to Premier League football after a complete squad overhaul in the summer.

And the Magpies will likely face a completely different looking Forest side again this time around after they signed seven more players during the January window. Two of those came from Newcastle United in the form of Wood and Jonjo Shelvey.

Shelvey joined Forest in the dying hours of the transfer window - even travelling back to the north east after sealing his move to the City Ground to watch his former teammates in action against Southampton in the second-leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. Shelvey, whose injury problems this season prevented him from starting a league game for United, has started the last four games for Steve Cooper’s side and could feature on Friday night.

Jack Colback, who spent six years on the books at St James’s Park, could also feature against his former employers. The 33-year-old played 90 minutes at St James’ Park back in August.

However, Newcastle will not have to contend with a trio of former players lining-up against them on Friday night with Wood ruled-out of action. Although Forest have triggered a clause that will see the New Zealand international leave Newcastle to join them on a permanent basis in the summer, he is currently still on-loan from the Magpies and thus is ineligible to play against his parent club.

Wood has scored just once for Forest since joining in January and managed just six minutes of their clash with Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend before being withdrawn with a thigh injury. Although Wood is ineligible to face the Magpies, it’s likely that this latest injury setback would have kept him out of Friday’s game anyway.