Nottingham Forest are reportedly expected to secure a loan deal for Newcastle United forward Chris Wood.
The Magpies moved to sign the New Zealand international soon after their takeover towards the end of 2021 and he has been at St James' Park for the past 12 months.
During that time, Wood has made 21 starts and 18 substitute outings in all competitions, chipping in with five goals.
Despite his regular game time, the 31-year-old is no higher than third in the pecking order at St James' Park with Callum Wilson and club-record signing Alexander Isak ahead of him.
© Reuters
With Newcastle pushing to qualify for next season's Champions League and having reached the EFL Cup semi-finals, it had been expected that Wood would remain in the North-East.
However, according to The Times, Wood is more likely to spend the remainder of 2022-23 on loan at Forest.
The East Midlands outfit are said to be working on an arrangement with Newcastle, who shelled out £25m when they signed Wood from Burnley by activating his release clause.
Steve Cooper already has numerous options at his disposal down the middle of his attack with Taiwo Awoniyi, Brennan Johnson, Sam Surridge and Emmanuel Dennis all competing for roles in the final third during the first half of the campaign.
© Reuters
Nevertheless, Surridge has been linked with an exit from the City Ground and Dennis is said to have fallen down the pecking order since making a big-money-move from Watford.
Although Forest are hampered when it comes to parting ways with the Nigeria international, who has already played for two clubs this season, it appears that it will not prevent them from attempting to make another notable signing in the final third.
From Newcastle's perspective, a temporary exit would not necessarily improve their standing with FFP, but there would be more leeway to potentially sign a player who could be used in more than one position in that area.
Newcastle have recently been linked with the likes of Roma's Nicolo Zaniolo and Chelsea's Hakim Ziyech.
Darren Plant
