Hayden Barton-Cootes was no where to be seen as the Wheel Blacks warmed up for their final match of the Paralympic Games, which was undoubtedly a morale hit with the 27-year-old being the team's leader in the haka.
Barton-Cootes confirmed to 1 NEWS his absence was due to a high fever in his routine temperature check.
“It was worrying," he said.
"Woke up and had temp checks as usual and had a high fever so pretty much had to isolate in my room. I was told I couldn’t come out to the game so I was gutted.”
But incredibly, after more checks, a doctor had him cleared just moments before the Wheel Blacks lined up for the national anthem before facing Denmark.
As such, Barton-Cootes made it to the court, to the relief of Wheel Blacks captain Cody Everson.
“When the team saw Hayden, we knew we were on,” Everson said.
“It was awesome to see the love from the boys,” Barton-Cootes said.
That emotion then came out in another stirring haka performance, which has quickly become a highlight of this year's Tokyo Paralympics after the Wheel Blacks' 13-year hiatus from the Games.
At the front was Barton-Cootes, leading the team once more before their last hoorah of the tournament which resulted in a hard-fought loss to Denmark by just three tries.
TVNZ Duke will show all the New Zealand moments from noon until 1am daily from August 24, and highlights will be on TVNZ 1, Duke and OnDemand.
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