All Whites coach Darren Bazeley took Wood off on the hour-mark after a clash in the friendly in Oslo where the striker became New Zealand's equal-most capped player (88) with Ivan Vicelich.

Bazeley said Wood's knee had been bothering him during the international window, but the team had managed it so he could start against the Norwegians and match Vicelich's record.

"It's been a little bit sore for this week. Nothing too bad," Bazeley said. "I think when you saw him go down, he was holding it a little bit. It's a little bit of tightness within his knee.

"So I think he will be fine. But we knew throughout the week he wasn't 100 percent fit. So he didn't play much against Poland.

"And then, we worked through so that he could start today because today he became the ... joint-leading appearance maker with 88 caps."

New Zealand's all-time leading goal-scorer was kept on the bench until the 84th minute of the 1-0 friendly defeat to Poland in Chorzow.

Wood's struggles come at a bad time for Forest, winless in seven matches in all competitions under Ange Postecoglou ahead of meeting Chelsea at home on Sunday.

Wood scored two goals in Forest's Premier League opener against Brentford but has not been on the scoresheet since.

He appeared a shadow of the striker that netted 20 goals last season as Forest lost 2-0 at Newcastle United in its last start, heaping further pressure on Postecoglou.

Against Norway, Wood missed two chances in two minutes to put the All Whites 2-0 up early in the second half when he volleyed into the cross-bar before heading wide.

Minutes after Wood came off, Norway substitute Antonio Nusa scored from close range, cancelling out Finn Surman's sliding effort on the stroke of half-time.

New Zealand, already qualified for next year's World Cup, ended Norway's nine-game winning streak but was denied its first win in Europe since 2010.

"Not losing is good, but we haven't won. That's our next step - to beat European teams, to beat South American teams," Bazeley said.