New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has suffered a calf strain, not a tear as was suspected, and is unlikely to play any further part in the one-off Test series with Zimbabwe.
Rain forced the early abandonment of the day's play at 3.45pm and play will resume at 10am on Saturday.
He is also unlikely to feature in the One Day International and Twenty20 programmes following the Test match in Napier. However, New Zealand Cricket was still awaiting the results of scans taken of Taylor's injury at Hastings Hospital and a clearer picture was expected of his immediate future on Saturday morning.
Taylor limped out of the Napier Test on 122 not out on Friday morning and the game was interrupted by rain soon after when New Zealand were 392-5.
Taylor, who had added 11 to his overnight score, drove a ball and set off for a run only to pull up and limp his way through to the bowler's end.
He immediately walked from the pitch and sought medical aid, and left the field soon after. New Zealand were 365-5 at the time, 10 overs into the second morning's play.
Overnight batsman BJ Watling had advanced to 37 not out and was joined by Doug Bracewell who was dropped after scoring two.
Watling took up the cudgels for New Zealand and was on 52, his second Test half-century in his seventh Test, when the rain break occurred. His half-century came off 92 balls in 125 minutes. He had been severe on anything on his legs during the morning.
Bracewell was 11 not out at the break.
New Zealand management said Taylor would bat if required later in the innings. After play on the first night, Taylor said New Zealand's goal would be to reach a minimum of 450 in its first innings, and that might still not be enough to put it on the road to victory.