Chris Wood is Burnley's top goalscorer in the English Premier League, but he was once bullied for not playing rugby in New Zealand.

All Whites star Chris Wood has revealed he was bullied at school in New Zealand for not playing rugby - until he struck back.

The English Premier League striker talked about his football origins in the Waikato in a video interview with Sky Sports' Making It Pro programme.

Wood, Burnley's top scorer with 11-goals in the now-suspended EPL season, said he played rugby and cricket at school, but football was his first love - to his schoolmates' chagrin.

He said he "played a bit of both", rugby and football, "just because I got bullied for playing football".

Nick Potts Burnley's Chris Wood contests a high ball with Leicester City's Caglar Soyuncu.

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Iain McGregor Chris Wood clashes with Italy's Gianluca Zambrotta at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

"If you are in England and you play some other sport, you get bullied not playing football.

"Back in New Zealand, if you don't play rugby, you get bullied.

"I got bullied [for playing football], [then] I thought, 'wow, I'm a big lad, I'm not having this .. so I knocked a few of them about and then a bit of respect came back. It was like, we're not messing with him'."

Wood - now 1.91m in his claret and blue stockinged feet - said he was "just lucky" he was almost six feet tall by the age of 13.

"I was big for my age. I was playing men's football by the time I was 14 and a half or 15, and of course my career took off from there."

Stu Forster Ashley Westwood congratulates Chris Wood on a another goal for Burnley.

In a wide-ranging 14-minute interview, Wood spoke of his pride at playing for the All Whites, saying he rated his debut for the national team (against Tanzania in 2009) alongside his English Premier League debut for West Bromwich Albion in 2009, as the greatest highlights of his career.

Wood said he was "extremely proud and honoured" to be just the fifth New Zealander to play in the EPL (after Lee Norfolk, Danny Hay, Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott, and before Winston Reid's debut with West Ham United in 2010).

"It's hard to get over from New Zealand and apply yourself in the top leagues, and learn your trade as a player."

But, despite his EPL success and great goalscoring record in English football in the past decade, Wood said: "Ultimately playing for your national team is what you dream of."

Iain McGregor A teenage Chris Wood at the All Whites' 2010 World Cup finals base near Johannesburg with his mother Julie and father Grant.

He said he felt privileged to be the All Whites' youngest player at a World Cup finals (in South Africa in 2010, as an 18-year-old) and to be his country's youngest senior captain (in November 2014, at 22).

"It was fantastic," he said of the World Cup where he came off the bench in all three pool matches and came close to scoring a winning goal against world champions Italy.

"Playing at the World Cpu is anybody's dream, especially as an international, it's where you want to go and test yourself against the best players in the world."

Wood's Making It Pro interview also covered how his sister, Chelsey, a former New Zealand age-group women's international, was the "technically better" player in their Cambridge household, and how grateful he was when his mother, Julie, moved to England with him when he went to West Bromwich Albion as a teenager for a trial set up by his Waikato coach Roger Wilkinson.

The Burnley sharpshooter also chuckled at a memory of how a family friend had promised to pay him $100 for every goal he scored for Cambridge AFC's first team.

"I was 14 when I scored my first goal [for Cambridge seniors], and he ultimately regretted it very soon. Luckily enough, he kicked me out of the club very quickly and pushed me on to greater things."