Ma'a Nonu is set to miss the rest of the Rugby Championship with a suspected broken forearm.
The All Blacks centre did not come out for the second half of the match against the Springboks.
'We've got a pretty good idea of Ma'a's prognosis,' said coach Steve Hansen. 'We think it's probably broken. He felt sore and the doctor decided he wasn't right at half-time.'
Meanwhile, Hansen praised his men for extending their home record to 36 straight wins.
'The character of this side has been tested a few times over the last few years,' he said. 'They keep coming up with an A-plus pass mark. Once again they did that tonight. They put themselves under pressure at times with poor kicking and allowed the Boks to attack us from unstable platforms and yet we showed a lot of courage to keep them out.
'The arm wrestle was won in the last 100th second of the game. They could have easily scored right at the very end and won it. It's a shame in a game like that someone has to lose. I'm just happy it wasn't us.'
Captain Richie McCaw echoed his coach's sentiments.
'It wasn't perfect but to guts out a win like that you're pretty happy, I guess,' he said. 'We were just hanging in there but I was proud of the way the guys re-grouped in the second half. It was desperate times and that shows the character when you dig deep like that.
'We had to hold our nerve and keep tackling and a mistake came, thank goodness.'
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