Daniel Vettori has been ruled out of New Zealand's tour of South Africa with an injured heel.
The left-arm spinner, 33, damaged his Achilles tendon during the Twenty20 World Cup in September and has since missed the Black Caps' tours to the West Indies, India and Sri Lanka.
He has already missed seven Test matches and he will now miss at least two more, as well as three ODIs and three Twenty20 internationals against the Proteas.
Vettori has taken 359 wickets in 111 Tests.