Killen gives up honeymoon for NZ World Cup duty

New Zealand striker Chris Killen had his white wedding but gave up his honeymoon to rejoin his New Zealand team-mates in the lead-up to their first World Cup appearance in nearly three decades.

Killen missed the All Whites’ shock 1-0 defeat of Serbia in a World Cup warm-up in Austria on Saturday after flying to Britain for his wedding, but the Middlesbrough player has since rejoined the squad.

“It was a great day. Obviously it would have been nice to go straight on a honeymoon afterwards. The missus would have been a bit happy with that,” Killen told the New Zealand Press Association.

“She knows it’s important for myself and my career, that the World Cup is the focus now, so we’ve put it on hold until after. As soon as we’re done here we’ll be off.”

New Zealand play a warm-up game against Slovenia on Friday before flying to South Africa for their first appearance at football’s showpiece event since 1982.