The Hurricanes have confirmed Covid-19 has managed to get into their Super Rugby Pacific squad, but the exact number of cases is undisclosed.
Hurricanes assistant coach Chris Gibbes confirmed the virus' presence in their team on Monday ahead of Saturday's clash with newcomers Moana Pasifika in Wellington.
“What I can confirm is that we have got Covid in the environment, I’m just not at liberty to tell you who and how many players we’ve got, but it’s in the environment and we’re working really hard to manage it,” Gibbes said.
“We’re preparing to take on these guys this weekend, and that’s what we’re focused on."
Gibbes said the team did not train on Monday due to the situation.
“What we can control is making sure we stay healthy and we’re doing everything we can in that space," he said.
“We kind of knew it was coming and we prepared really well for it so from a whole organisation perspective we just need to make sure we can get a team out and get our performance going again this weekend.”
It comes after rising talent Asafo Aumua was a late withdrawal from last weekend's 21-14 win over the Highlanders.
The Hurricanes said at the time Aumua was "sick" but did not confirm if he had the coronavirus. Gibbes didn't comment on Aumua's illness on Monday either.
There were 17,522 new community cases recorded in New Zealand on Monday.
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