(Auckland, NZL) - While New Zealanders continue to fret on World Cup life without Dan Carter in the All Blacks, they can take solace from the fact the history of sport is filled with successes born from misfortune.
The World Cup host nation grieved when proven match-winner and poster-boy Carter was ruled out of the tournament with a serious groin injury after just three matches, leaving novice Colin Slade as the backline commander.
They feared rugby's most successful team -- outside of the showpiece World Cup -- would once again fail to achieve in the tournament that matters most.
But as Slade goes into Sunday's quarter-final against Argentina confidently saying he's "not going out there to be DC (Dan Carter). I'm going to play my game and lead the team the best way I know how," the heartache may prove unwarranted.
Brazil were equally shocked when the great Pele was injured in their second group match of the 1962 football World Cup but the team carried on to beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final.
England's hero four years later was Geoff Hurst, in his first season as an international and selected in the Cup squad primarily as training partner for Jimmy Greaves.
He never looked back after replacing an injured Greaves for the quarter-final against Argentina and capped his elevation with a hat-trick in England's 4-2 victory over West Germany to claim the title.
Hurst remains the only man to have scored three goals in a World Cup final.
New South Wales cricket fans feared the worst when batting prodigy Archie Jackson was injured before a game in 1928.
They needn't have worried. Jackson's misfortune opened the door for a player who became one of the greatest batsman of them all -- Don Bradman.
When Alf Valentine fell ill before a Test against England at Kingston in 1954, the West Indies called up a 17-year-old Garry, later Sir Garfield, Sobers despite a mediocre performance against the tourists for Barbados.
Sobers ended his career regarded as the best all-rounder cricket has known.
Springbok ace Frans Steyn, also out of this rugby World Cup because of injury, became the youngest player to hoist the Webb Ellis Trophy as a 19-year-old in the victorious South Africa team in 2007.
The teenager cemented his spot when he replaced centre Jean de Villiers, who was injured in their first pool game, and played in the final, kicking a 62nd minute penalty to seal the Springboks' 15-6 win over England.
The All Blacks already have their own notable achievers who rose to prominence through another's World Cup injury.
Captain and hooker Andy Dalton pulled a hamstring on the eve of the 1987 tournament and watched as scrum-half David Kirk led the side to win the Webb Ellis trophy for New Zealand's first and, so far, only World Cup crown.
Sean Fitzpatrick took over as hooker and retained the number two jersey for the next 10 years.
Even if Slade suffers the wobbles early on for the All Blacks, that alone is no reason to give up on the fly-half who turns 24 on Monday.
A young lad by the name of Stan Smith was rejected as a ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match because he was considered too clumsy and uncoordinated.
The American grew up to win both Wimbledon and the US Open Grand Slam tournaments as well as eight Davis Cups.
Michael Jordan, arguably the finest basketball player of all time, was cut from his high school team because it was thought he was not up it.
That dumping and every on-court error afterwards drove him through his illustrious career.
"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed," he once said.
"I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
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