The All Whites are sweating on the fitness of Winston Reid for next week's World Cup playoff against Costa Rica, after the experienced defender missed their scoreless draw with Oman in a warm-up friendly.
Bill Tuiloma captained the team in Reid's absence, as the All Whites took on the Omanis behind closed doors in Qatar, where they will meet Costa Rica next Wednesday for a spot at this year's World Cup.
Reid is suffering a groin issue, but coach Danny Hay is confident the 33-year-old former West Ham United centre-back will be fit for the clash at Al Rayyan.
"He's had more injuries probably than I've had warm dinners over the last couple of years, so he knows his body really well," Hay said. "The medical staff are confident as well.
"We'll just obviously wrap a little bit of cotton wool around him over the next couple of days and then start ramping it up towards matchday."
Hay made nine changes to the side that lost 1-0 to Peru in Barcelona in their first warm-up for the intercontinental playoff.
Despite creating most of scoring chances at Doha's Education City Stadium, New Zealand were unable to find the net for the second successive match.
"It served its purpose," Hay added. "It was an opportunity to give players minutes and that's exactly what it did.
"We come out of it injury-free, which is the most important thing. We created a number of opportunities and probably should have been up 2-3 goals at half-time."
The All Whites have previously qualified twice for the World Cup finals, most recently in South Africa in 2010, when they went home unbeaten, after drawing all three of their group matches.
Reuters
