DAN Carter has been named in the All Blacks team to face Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday – but he remains a doubt for the big game.

Carter limped through the second half of last Saturday’s Bleddisloe Cup tie against Australia in Japan and the long flight to the UK didn’t help him.

He hasn’t been able to train this week and though coach Graham Henry has included the 63-times capped outside half lynchpin in the team, he admitted they are only ‘hopeful’ he would play as he announced the side.

“We have managed him through the week and we’re hopeful he’ll be all right,” said the former Wales chief.

“He came off in the game a few days ago with a haematoma in his calf muscle, he’s not 100% but he’s improving.

“We are communicating and we’ll keep on doing that and then we’ll see how he is. He doesn’t have to train for a full 80 minutes, but if he is not right Stephen Donald will play.”

Carter, 27, who made his Test debut against Wales in Hamilton in 2003, has got a terrific record against them, averaging 18 points a game in his five appearances.

Donald is Carter’s regular deputy, but is far more inexperienced with 17 caps to his name, eight of them as a replacement.

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, who will win his 78th cap on Saturday, added to the uncertainty surrounding Carter when he said, “He didn’t train today, hopefully he’ll be OK but we can’t worry about it, that’s not the way to operate.

“If he’s not fit we’ll have to get on with it, Stpehen Donald has played a few Tests.”

Henry has called on 20-year-old Zac Guildford to make his debut in place of the suspended Sitiveni Sivivatu, while Wyatt Crockett, capped just once against Italy this year, replaces Tony Woodcock, the loose head prop also banned for one game.

Guildford has come up through the ranks and suffered the heartbreak of seeing his father die from a heart attack while he was playing for New Zealand in last year’s World Cup Under-21 tournament in Japan.

Lock Jason Eaton and back row pair Jerome Kaino and Kieran Reid also step in up front while Brendon Leonard comes in at scrum half as Henry rings the changes.

“The policy is to give everyone an opportunity, we need to know if everyone is up to international standard, no disrespect intended.

“But we picked the teams to play Australia and Wales at the same time.”

Henry played a straight bat when questioned about fellow New Zealander Warren Gatland’s comment as Wales coach that the All Blacks had lost some of their aura in the wake of a few defeats this year – three to South Africa.

“That’s not for me to describe, it’s for others. We coach to the best of our ability, making judgements around those mystical statements is for others to decide.”

When another TV interviewer persisted, Henry replied: “Aura? I haven’t got a clue. What does that mean?” Graham Henry is back in town.

New Zealand: M Muliaina; C Jane, C Smith, M Nonu, Z Guildford; D Carter, B Leonard; W Crockett, A Hore, N Tialata, B Thorn, J Eaton, J Kaino, R McCaw (capt), K Read. Replacements: C Flynn, O Franks, T Donnelly, A Thomson, J Cowan, S Donald, B Smith.