The All Blacks 7s skipper Tim Mikkelson has been ruled out of Hong Kong 7s tournament due to ankle sprain.

Mikkelson was on his way to score New Zealand’s try in their 19-17 win over France when he copped a tackle from Virimi Vakatawa.

Vakatawa was penalised from the restart. Veteran prop DJ Forbes has now taken over the captaincy role. This was confirmed from the tweet sent from the New Zealand 7s camp.

Meanwhile, the All Blacks 7s hold a proud record at the iconic Hong Kong tournament and should seek to use that as a motivating force in their quest for Cup success this weekend.

After surprising many pundits with a tactically astute display to win the Canada 7s last month after misfiring in Las Vegas, New Zealand are in third place, one and two points behind Fiji and South Africa respectively going into the seventh leg of the World Series.

New Zealand have won 11 Cup finals, second only to Fiji with 15, and some of the game’s brightest talents have made their name in Hong Kong, among them Glen Osborne, Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen, who were central to New Zealand’s three triumphs from 1994-96.

“We have three tough pool games in this tournament,” said coach Gordon Tietjens. “Like every team they’ll all look to get themselves up for Hong Kong and it’ll be no different this time.”

Waikato’s Isaac Te Tamaki returns for his first outing since the Cape Town event in December, while Pita Ah Ki, released by the Hurricanes, plays his first tournament since the 2014 Commonwealth Games.