Bobby Wood said he could have quit football had it not been for Jurgen Klinsmann. Getty

Hamburg attacker Bobby Wood has said he could have quit football had it not been for former U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Wood, 24, won his first cap for the United States in 2013 while playing for 1860 Munich, the club he joined as a 14-year-old.

Although he failed to score in the 2013-14 season and the first half of the following term and was dropped to the reserves, Klinsmann started inviting him more regularly in 2014.

And after a move to Erzgebirge, Wood's form picked up and he began the revival that has led him to the Bundesliga.

Speaking to Hamburg's club magazine HSV Live, the U.S. attacker, Wood said Klinsmann "has got a very big importance for me."

He added: "I believe that if Jurgen had not been the U.S. head coach, I might have quit football or would have played somewhere in the fourth tier.

"I was in a deep hole at the time, it was really difficult. But Jurgen Klinsmann in that situation cast the line so I could get out again."

Wood has scored five Bundesliga goals this season and has been linked with a move from Hamburg, but Klinsmann said he "would advise him not to make a switch right now."