Wood: I was bullied for playing football

All Whites star Chris Wood has revealed he was bullied at school in New Zealand for not playing rugby – until he struck back.

The English Premier League striker talked about his football origins in the Waikato in a video interview with Sky Sports’ Making It Pro programme.

Wood, Burnley’s top scorer with 11-goals in the now-suspended EPL season, said he played rugby and cricket at school, but football was his first love – to his schoolmates’ chagrin.

He said he ‘‘played a bit of both’’, rugby and football, ‘‘just because I got bullied for playing football’’.

‘‘If you are in England and you play some other sport, you get bullied not playing football.

‘‘Back in New Zealand, if you don’t play rugby, you get bullied.

‘‘I got bullied [for playing football], [then] I thought, ‘wow, I’m a big lad, I’m not having this’ . . . so I knocked a few of them about and then a bit of respect came back. It was like, ‘we’re not messing with him’.’’

Wood – now 1.91m in his claret and blue stockinged feet – said he was ‘‘just lucky’’ he was almost six feet tall by the age of 13.

‘‘I was big for my age. I was playing men’s football by the time I was 14-and-a-half or 15, and of course my career took off from there.’’

In a wide-ranging 14-minute interview, Wood spoke of his pride at playing for the All Whites, saying he rated his debut for the national team (against Tanzania in 2009) alongside his English Premier League debut for West Bromwich Albion in 2009 as the greatest highlights of his career.

Wood said he was ‘‘extremely proud and honoured’’ to be just the fifth New Zealander to play in the EPL (after Lee Norfolk, Danny Hay, Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott, and before Winston Reid’s debut with West Ham United in 2010).

But, despite his EPL success and great goalscoring record in English football in the past decade, Wood said: ‘‘Ultimately, playing for your

‘‘I got bullied [for playing football], [then] I thought, ‘wow, I’m a big lad, I’m not having this’ . . . so I knocked a few of them about and then a bit of respect came back. It was like, ‘we’re not messing with him’.’’ Chris Wood

national team is what you dream of.’’

He said he felt privileged to be the All Whites’ youngest player at a World Cup finals (in South Africa in 2010, as an 18-year-old) and to be his country’s youngest senior captain (in November 2014, at 22).

‘‘It was fantastic,’’ he said of the World Cup where he came off the bench in all three pool matches and came close to scoring a winning goal against world champions Italy.

‘‘Playing at the World Cup is anybody’s dream, especially as an international, it’s where you want to go and test yourself against the best players in the world.’’