Dan Carter's Wellington jinx has continued after being ruled out of the All Blacks team to face Argentina on Saturday.
Carter, 30, strained his left calf muscle at an indoor training session on Thursday morning and will be replaced in the starting No.10 jersey by Aaron Cruden.
Taranaki first five-eighth Beauden Barrett, who has trained with the squad this week, will come onto the reserve bench.
All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen said Carter carried a calf niggle into the Test preparation this week but had been hopeful of playing.
"It's disappointing when you lose a class player but we have a class player taking his place," Hansen said.
"He (Cruden) is in good form, he's got a lot of confidence and the guys have got a lot of confidence in him.
"We've anticipated it could have happened, he's been a bit tight all week so Cruds has done a lot of training in there and we've been lucky we've had Beauden all week as well."
It was too early to say if the injury would rule Carter out of next week's test against South Africa in Dunedin.
The last time Carter was preparing for a Test in Wellington was nearly a year ago, when he famously injured his groin ahead of the World Cup pool match against Canada.
That injury, described by then-coach Sir Graham Henry as a "tragedy", ruled Carter out of the tournament and opened the door for Cruden to play a role in the tournament's knockout stages.
Cruden, who enjoyed an exceptional Super Rugby campaign with the championship-winning Chiefs, has made one start and two bench appearances this year to take his Test cap tally to 12.
His start was short but brilliant in the 60-0 third Test thrashing of Ireland in Hamilton in June. Cruden sliced the Irish defence to ribbons before hobbling off with an ankle injury.
Cruden, 23, said getting the green light to start so late in the week wouldn't be a problem.
"The good thing with this team is that we're all told to prepare to play.
"For me, I was doing that throughout the week so I don't think it matters too much being notified this late. I'm just keen to rip into it now."
