New Zealand captain Richie McCaw has been passed fit for his side's World Cup semi-final against Australia this weekend.

The 30-year-old has had a persistent foot injury throughout the tournament, and the arrival of Matt Tood on the training pitch raised speculation that the skipper would miss Sunday's clash.

However, All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen has played down fears that McCaw will miss out.

"I can guess what the first question is going to be and Richie McCaw's foot is fine," Hansen told reporters. "Matt Todd is training with us as you all know and have written about. Matt Todd is part of the wider training group and trained with us in Christchurch as did other players down there.

"Matt Todd is in Auckland and it just made common sense to have him here. Now that doesn't mean that Richie's foot is worse than it was, it doesn't mean Richie isn't playing on Sunday, it just means Matt Todd was in Auckland and we wanted to use him for training as opposition so hopefully that puts that away and we can talk about the game."

McCaw became the All Blacks' most-capped player when he made his 101st appearance against Canada in the pool stage.