Shannon Frizell joins injured list of New Zealand

New Zealand are likely to be without loose forward Shannon Frizell for the Rugby World Cup opener against France following a hamstring injury.

The 29-year-old sustained the injury during a training session and will join lock Brodie Retallick on the sidelines with a latter down with a knee injury.

New Zealand head coach Ian Foster revealed that both Retallick and Frizell are likely to miss the upcoming warm-up game against South Africa next weekend and the tournament opener against France on 8th September.

“Brodie is progressing really well, and we’ll assess more next week,” said Foster.

“He’s out of the South Africa game and likely to be out of the French game.

“And we’ve got Shannon Frizell who tweaked his hamstring two days ago doing a speed session. Again that’s probably a similar time-frame, so that’s a bit niggly for us.”

The upcoming World Cup will be Foster's last assignment with the All Blacks before he will be replaced by Scott Robertson. The 58-year-old said they will not be holding back as they look to reclaim the Webb Ellis Cup after losing to the Springboks in 2019.

“I won’t be protecting anyone,” he added.

“It will be a normal process. If we’ve got people with a slight ding then they won’t play. But there will be no sentiment about trying to put people in cotton-wool. You don’t win World Cups by putting people in cotton-wool.”