Wood’s honoured to make Great Britain bow

The 20-year-old made her debut for Danny Kerry’s side as they won 1-0 in the first of a three-match test series in Valencia.

It is another huge landmark for the Holcombe forward who helped England women’s team to a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games last year.

The former Millais School and Collyer’s pupil has hit back from fears her career was over in 2013 after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee.

Wood, who is a personal trainer at The Pavilions, played her part in Great Britain’s triumph on Tuesday which was sealed by a 37th-minute winner from captain Alex Danson.

She said: “I’m incredibly proud and honoured to receive my first Great Britain cap alongside such great players and team-mates.

“It was a well fought game yesterday, the Spanish were sharp, so it was good to come out with a 1-0 win, but as ever there is a lot to work on.

“It means so much to me to be competing for GB and I will continue to work extremely hard to put myself in the best possible position to be selected again in the future and help the team move forwards in preparation for Olympic qualifiers and European Championships later this year.”

Head coach Danny Kerry said: “It’s great to be taking this group to Valencia and to be playing as Great Britain as we look ahead to a big year for the squad with Olympic qualification in June.

“There are six players in line to make their Great Britain debuts and as ever the combination of talent across the wider squad is an exciting prospect and brings extra competitiveness to selection and raises the bar of performance even further.

“These test matches are so important for us to develop the squad and ensure the less experienced players get to play at the very top level before we go into major tournaments. I’m confident we’ll get better over the next two games.”

The former Horsham player was set for action again yesterday in Polideportivo Virgen del Carmen Betero, before the test finale on Friday.