All Whites coach Danny Hay has conceded he and his side are worried about another run in with Covid-19 after a second team at the Oceania World Cup qualifying tournament confirmed cases in their squad.
Tahiti have yet to play a match at the event after both Vanuatu and the Cook Islands were forced to miss their games against the small French Polynesian nation with high case numbers.
While the virus hasn't reached New Zealand's camp, the All Whites know how devastating it can be after being forced to cancel a friendly against Uzbekistan earlier this year due to an outbreak.
Unlike then though, the stakes are much higher now with a shot at making the World Cup on the line.
Hay said the situation isn't lost on his players.
"Of course [we're worried]," he said.
"We went through that ourselves in January when we were in Dubai and obviously missed a game because of that.
"We’re trying to take every precaution that we can, but that’s not to say the unthinkable won’t happen. It’s still very much a risk.
"We’ve just got to do what we can to negate that creeping its way in."
The All Whites are set to lose a handful of players to A-League commitments after their second game at the tournament against Fiji on Tuesday but Hay said he wouldn't hesitate to call clubs and request they come back to Qatar if the virus turned up again.
"I'd be making a call to some of these A-League clubs straight away and we'd be trying to get the likes of Oli [Sail] or others back, if not keep them with us, and I hope for the good of the game that people would be open to that," he said.
"We’ve got other players around the world, as you know, that we can call upon, but ultimately we don’t want to be flying players in from a long, long way away. I’m thinking of the likes of Michael Boxall [in the United States]. But the reality is, if we need to do that we can.
"But we do have a number of players here now, which is why the daily RAT tests are a really important aspect because if it does creep in we can isolate a player and move on that pretty quickly.
"It’s a concern what is happening on the other side of the draw and ultimately the decision makers at Fifa and OFC have to come up with something that will be fair for all teams, but that’s for them to decide, we’re just working on our jobs at the moment and controlling what we can control."
Hay added while he would make the most of the limited amount of time he has left with the A-League players, he would also make tweaks to the side that beat Papua New Guinea 1-0 on Saturday due to the short turnaround of the matches.
"That’s the right and smart thing to do just to ensure that come those crucial games towards the back end of the tournament that we’ve still got firepower and running in us."
The All Whites play Fiji at 6am on Tuesday after the Fijians - led by former Phoenix star Roy Krishna - opened their campaign with a 2-1 win over New Caledonia.
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