Soccer: Teen set for All Whites debut

British-based 17-year-old Chris Woods is set for an early All Whites call-up as coach Ricki Herbert is left with few options ahead of tomorrow morning's African tour opener against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam.

With Tim Brown, Tony Lochhead and goalkeeper James Bannatyne in isolation with a stomach bug, Herbert will almost certainly hand Woods his international debut.

Herbert is further handicapped by the late arrival of US-based Andy Boyens, Simon Elliott, Duncan Oughton and Jarrod Smith who, along with Celtic striker Chris Killen, are not due in Tanzania until today. He had not planned to play any of that quintet first-up but may be forced to have one or two of his late arrivals on the bench.

Ben Sigmund's delayed return to action after recovering from hip surgery has further handicapped Herbert's selection plans.

"It's never going to be plain sailing from an injury or illness point of view so we just need to work through things," said Herbert, who has also had to deal with off-field problems. "It [the team to play Tanzania] will be a completely different line-up than we will see in the Confederations Cup but great for the players to at least get a game."

Woods seems certain to get some game time, either in the starting XI or from the bench, as Herbert puts his players through their paces in the matches against Tanzania and Botswana before naming his first-choice team to play Italy next Thursday.

Apart from the illness scare, Herbert is happy with the preparation, saying there is a nice sense of anticipation in the camp.

The unavailability of a promised training pitch in Botswana forced the party to transfer back to Johannesburg where they continued their build-up for the opening match of their three-match Confederations Cup warm-up programme.

Tanzania, at 104 on the latest Fifa list, are ranked below New Zealand (78) but Herbert is more concerned with their latest results than the numbers game.

"We went through some of their results with the players last night," said Herbert. "Some of their recent efforts have been very good against the likes of Senegal, Ghana and Cameroon - teams that have been in and around World Cups for a while now.

"It will certainly be a tough one first up," said Herbert. "I think Tanzania are very good physically, strong and quick right through the team."

The game kicks off at 1am tomorrow (NZ time).