Gun batsman Kane Williamson has played down the seriousness of his knee injury after being ruled out of the opening one-day international of New Zealand's home summer.
Williamson was a late omission from the first game of the five-match series against Sri Lanka at Christchurch's Hagley Oval. He was replaced by Tom Latham, with Henry Nicholls promoted to make his international debut.
A cloud had hung over 25-year-old Williamson after picking up a knock in the second Test win over Sri Lanka in Hamilton.
He failed the last of several fitness tests on his knee on Christmas Day.
"Unfortunately with the playing schedule that we have, it just needs a little bit of rest to try and get it right. Hopefully it's 100 per cent going into the summer," Williamson said.
The world's top-ranked Test batsman, Williamson is now a long shot to set the world record for the most prolific calendar year across all formats.
He has scored 2633 runs in 2015 which is 255 runs short of Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara's record mark established last year.
There are two ODIs remaining in December, in Christchurch on Monday and Nelson on Thursday.
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