Nathan Wood | I will see a lot of familiar faces, but it's business first for me

25th August
First team
Nathan Wood in the third kit

Nathan Wood is looking forward to catching up with friends and familiar faces at Middlesbrough this weekend, but wants to make sure those reunions come on the back of a positive result for Swansea City at the Riverside Stadium.

Wood, 20, joined the Swans from Boro in June, and he has not had to wait long for a return to his old stomping ground.

The centre-half was on the books with the Teesside club from the age of 13, and went on to become their youngest-ever player when featuring in an EFL Cup tie against Notts County aged just 16 years and 75 days.

Wood will have a number of family in attendance at Saturday’s Championship fixture, and will see a number of former team-mates and individuals who helped him in his development.

But his primary focus will, of course, be on making sure the Swans make it two away wins on the spin.

“Obviously I was at Middlesbrough for a number of years, and I have good relationships with a lot of people there behind the scenes,” he said.

“A lot of people there were really good for me and really helped me. I will always be grateful for that and it will hopefully be nice to catch up with them.

Nathan Wood Plymouth

“But it’s definitely a case of business first. I am a Swansea player and I want us to get the points we want, and I want to be catching up with some old faces with a smile on my face because we have got a positive result.

“I will have a family there, my mother and my grandmother will be there, as will my little cousins who are Boro mad and footy mad so I am sure some of them might be on the fence a bit during the game.

“There will be a lot of people I know from school and that just excites me really, I think it will be a really good atmosphere.

“But we had a good result in our last away game. We want to build on that and try to set out the way we play. We will focus on what we do and everything else comes from that.

“We know that a few key moments have made the difference over these first games, but this is an unpredictable league where every team will have good moments and difficult moments. The key is to be able to deal with whatever it throws at you and keep improving.”