{"id":351636,"date":"2023-12-05T00:08:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T01:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351636"},"modified":"2023-12-05T04:04:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T04:04:17","slug":"haka-brings-star-to-tears-as-olympic-dream-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351636","title":{"rendered":"Haka brings star to tears as Olympic dream in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/em>This article originally appeared on Stuff and is reproduced with permission\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

New Zealand sevens<\/a> captain Sarah Hirini was in tears in a wheelchair with her injured right knee and faces a nervous wait to determine if she could miss next year's Paris Olympics.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 30-year-old was in a large knee brace after suffering the injury on the opening day of last weekend's Dubai Sevens<\/a>, the first leg of the new World Series.<\/p>\n

She has been ruled out of this weekend's tournament in Cape Town and was given an emotional farewell from her team-mates at the airport, who performed a haka for their skipper on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Watch the World Rugby Sevens on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> Every round exclusive, ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

Hirini was returning home for further medical assessments.<\/p>\n

It's not yet clear what the severity of her injury could be, but her tearful reaction suggested she feared the worst with the Olympics only seven months away.<\/p>\n

"I have had scans and am heading to back to Aotearoa to talk through my options with our medical team," Hirini said in an Instagram post, with a picture of her with a knee brace and crutches.<\/p>\n

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\"Sarah<\/p>\n

"I'm devastated to have not finished the tournament off with the team but am so proud to be a part of this group.<\/p>\n

"This roller coaster journey has just added a few more twists and turns."<\/p>\n

A New Zealand Rugby spokesperson said Hirini was having further medicals later this week.<\/p>\n

She is a talismanic figure for the Black Ferns sevens and would be a major loss if her knee injury did rule her out of the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns sevens will defend their Olympic gold at the Paris Games next July.<\/p>\n

Hirini is one of women's rugby's most decorated players, winning every major honour, including World Cup wins in sevens and 15s and Commonwealth Games and Olympic titles.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

She was one of the flagbearers for the New Zealand team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and led her side to gold.<\/p>\n

Returning from sevens to 15s, she played as a loose forward last year when the Black Ferns won their sixth Rugby World Cup title in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Tysha Ikenasio has replaced her in the travelling squad for this weekend's Cape Town Sevens.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

In Dubai, Hirini had kept New Zealand's remarkable unbeaten record alive with a late try to give them victory over South Africa.<\/p>\n

She was later injured and New Zealand's 41 match winning run came to an end in the women's final on Monday (AEDT), losing 26-19 to Australia.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand men's sevens side have also had to make an injury replacement for the South African leg of the series.<\/p>\n

Regan Ware was concussed during the pool stage in Dubai and has been replaced by Xavier Tito-Harris after New Zealand claimed bronze in Dubai with a 12-7 victory over Fiji.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Stuff and is reproduced with permission\ufeff New Zealand sevens captain Sarah Hirini was in tears in a wheelchair with her […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":351638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351643,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351636\/revisions\/351643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/351638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}