Rio de Janeiro: New Zealand have called up All Black flanker Liam Messam as a reserve after Teddy Stanaway was ruled out of the Olympics with a hand injury, coach Gordon Tietjens said Wednesday.
Messam, capped 43 times by the All Blacks and part of the squad that won the 2015 World Cup, missed out on the final squad for the rugby sevens competition making its Olympic debut.
Stanaway, who sustained a hand fracture in a warm-up match against the United States in Florida, is directly replaced in the 12-man match-day squad by Lewis Ormond, with Messam one of two reserves in case of injury. The flanker will not, however, be in the Olympic athletes` village.
"It`s so hard, him having worked so hard to make the team," Tietjens said of Stanaway.
"It was devastating for him, but he took it so well, as well as he could."
New Zealand squad Scott Curry (capt), Sam Dickson, DJ Forbes, Akira Ioane, Rieko Ioane, Gillies Kaka, Tim Mikkelson, Augustine Pulu, Lewis Ormond, Regan Ware, Joe Webber, Sonny Bill Williams
