Albion youth supremo Mark Harrison has tipped new professional Chris Wood to keep on improving as the teenage striker prepared for a possible international debut.

The academy director says 17-year-old Wood can still take huge steps in his game after signing his first professional contract this week.

Wood was heading today for New Zealand’s Botswana training camp for the Confederations Cup in South Africa and could win his first senior cap in the warm-up match against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.

But Harrison says the giant Kiwi remains a work in progress for Hawthorns coaches.

He said: “We need to work on his movement, because he has to be careful that he doesn’t get pigeon-holed as simply someone we can hit the ball up to and can get hold of it.

“It is important that we continue to work on his movement, getting in between defenders, and pulling on the shoulders of people.

“Centre-backs don’t like someone on their shoulders, they prefer to see people in front of them, so we are working with him on that.

“We are always constantly making sure that, because of his frame and physical attributes, we keep on top of things.

“Maintaining his pace and his endurance is critical because he has come up to a level of football that he has never played at before.

“But the key thing we’re working on with him is his movement and just being a little bit cleverer with it.”