Ardie Savea is the third member of the All Blacks touring party to contract mumps, which has ruled him out of Saturday’s Test against Wales.

The loose forward is suspected to have caught the viral infection from winger Rieko Ioane, and has had to spend time in isolation in the team’s hotel room this week.

Besides Ioane, centre Jack Goodue has also suffered bouts of the disease.

‘Clearly it’s caught us on the hop a little bit,’ All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster said. ‘It’s not something you get a lot of, so it’s really come out of the blue.

‘We’re really satisfied with the way the doc [team doctor Tony Page] reacted really quickly with Rieko, and obviously Ardie was susceptible even though he’d done everything right in the past.’

Meanwhile, captain Kieran Read is once again under an injury cloud ahead of Saturday’s final tour game against Wales.

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