Chris Wood says he feels back "up to speed" after returning from a lengthy injury lay-off to take his goal tally into double figures for the season.

Wood was sidelined for the best part of two months with a hamstring injury sustained during January’s 1-1 draw away to Brentford, but the striker has hit three goals from his last five matches since returning to the starting line-up.

The 24-year-old, United’s leading goalscorer this term despite being limited to 33 appearances in all competitions, made it 11 for the season with a match-winning brace in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Reading at Elland Road.

“It’s hard being injured,” Wood admitted. “It’s been a stop-start season – I’ve missed 10 weeks of the season, which hasn’t been nice.

“Being out for so long and having to come back has been difficult, it’s taken me a couple of games to get up to speed. That was always going to be the case after a long period out.

“I feel good and now I feel up to speed. I’ve had five games on the trot now where I’ve played 90 minutes and the legs seem to be holding up alright.

“Hopefully we can all have a good end to the season, that’s what we’re doing. We want to put some smiles back on faces.

“We all want to be playing well and creating a show on the pitch and winning games. That’s what it’s all about.”

United had fallen behind to Michael Hector’s first-half opener on Saturday afternoon, but Toumani Diagouraga equalised shortly after half-time before Wood headed the hosts in front after exchanging passes with Charlie Taylor.

“It’s always nice to be in the build-up and it was an excellent ball from Chaz, putting it right in that spot in the middle of the six-yard box,” the striker said.

“It’s a dream as a striker to be running onto those and it was nice to see it hit the back of the net.”

Substitute Deniss Rakels pulled Reading level but Wood was on hand to bury the winner with five minutes remaining, slotting calmly beyond Ali Al-Habsi after racing through on goal.

“Those ones are the hard ones, when you have time to think about them,” he admitted. “It makes it more difficult because there are different things going through your mind.

“But I pride myself on my finishing ability. I missed a couple of headers which I knew I should have been sticking away.

“I do get frustrated when I know I should have scored because I have high standards for myself. It was just nice to put one in the back of the net and kick on from there.

“It’s always very nice to score goals but the three points was what we needed, especially after their second which I felt was a bit harsh on us.

“Our luck hasn’t been going for us lately but it evened itself out in the end.”