Mumps scare for NZ Games team

A player in the New Zealand Commonwealth Games women’s rugby sevens team has contracted mumps. Ruby Tui,

26, is with the women’s rugby sevens team at their pre-games camp on the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

She is currently in isolation and being supported by a New Zealand team doctor who has travelled to the Sunshine Coast to be with her.

The wider team will remain in isolation at their camp while further assessments are made on players and support staff. The team had been scheduled to come into the village on Wednesday but will now remain in camp until Sunday.

The NZ women’s team had already been hit with injury, with Kat Whata-Simpkins ruled out with a leg injury. Tenika Willison moved up from from travelling reserve into the

12-strong squad, while Alena Saili joined the team as the new travelling reserve.

Mumps is an acute viral illness and is spread through coughing and sneezing and through direct contact with infected saliva.

A mumps outbreak started in Auckland in early 2017. More than 1000 cases have since been reported around the country.

New Zealand starts its competition in the women’s sevens at the Games on April 13.

On Monday three Games competitors in the athletes’ village were diagnosed with the flu and quarantined for 48 hours. Teenager Etene Nanai-Seturo was called up on Tuesday for the NZ men’s side after Ngarohi McGarvey Black suffered an ankle injury in a warmup match last week, while travelling reserve Caleb Clarke was forced to return to New Zealand for surgery after being diagnosed with appendicitis.