MELBOURNE -- Wallabies prop Allan Alaalatoa will miss the Rugby World Cup, after coach Eddie Jones confirmed he had suffered a "fairly serious" Achilles injury in Saturday night's 38-7 loss to the All Blacks at the MCG.
With three minutes remaining in the first half and the Wallabies trailing 12-7, the prop's leg got caught as a scrum went to ground right on halfway. Replays showed Alaalatoa turning inwards and collapsing, as the All Blacks moved the ball on under advantage.
Alaalatoa, in obvious pain, didn't get up and referee Wayne Barnes stopped play shortly after.
"He's got a fairly serious injury I would suggest, Achilles," Jones said after his team had slipped to a third straight loss since his return as coach.
With Taniela Tupou also suffering a rib injury, the Wallabies' tighthead stocks are likely to be severely tested, at least for next week's return Bledisloe in Dunedin, while their scrum was put under increasing pressure as the game unfolded in Melbourne.
Jones also revealed that co-captain Michael Hooper's calf injury, which he suffered ahead of the Test with Argentina in Sydney, was proving difficult to judge with the veteran No. 7 not in contention to play next week's Test.
While he wouldn't be drawn on exactly how long Hooper would be out, or whether he could miss the World Cup altogether, it appears the flanker's calf injury is far worse than initially reported.
"He's a long way away, mate," Jones said when asked whether Hooper would be fit for Bledisloe II. "We'll have to wait and see," he added on the veteran's No. 7's World Cup prospects.
"I'm saying that he's got a serious injury," Jones said. "And when you've got a serious injury there are deadlines and we need to find out the deadline on it. When you've got a calf injury sometimes you don't know how quickly it can recover. [Matildas star] Sam Kerr's back playing... on Monday. How fit she is, I don't know."
Hooper's deputy, Tom Hooper, was one of the Wallabies' better players in what was yet another crushing Bledisloe defeat for Australia, with the Brumbies back-rower topping the tackle count at 32, and also making a nuisance of himself around the All Blacks' breakdown.
"Competitive. Good. I think he's got a good future there," Jones said of Tom Hooper. "That's a hard game for him to play against and we wanted to find out where he was at, so we got a pretty good picture.
"Wayne likes to have a continuous game, he likes to have a high ball-in-play game, so for a 7 it's a hard job. I think in terms of the turnovers at the breakdown, we probably shaded in that area; I haven't seen the stats, but certainly my eye would tell me that. So I thought he did a pretty good job, mate."