Juventus star Buffon felt the pain in his back during half-time of Italy's Cup opener, forcing coach Marcello Lippi to replace him with Federico Marchetti at the interval.

But speaking to Goal.com, Italian doctor Enrico Castelacci said it was too early to make any decision on Buffon's fitness for the clash with the All Whites, saying scans would be done over the next few days.

Lippi said Buffon's substitution was a precautionary move.

"During the warm-up Buffon felt a pain in his back and after the first half he couldn't continue," said Lippi.

"It was a big blow. We lost a substitution that we could have used.

"I don't know how bad the injury is or how long it will take him to recover. The doctors will have to tell us that."

Buffon's absence could be a huge blow for the Azzurri as the 32-year-old was basically responsible for keeping his side in its last international tournament, when he saved a penalty against Romania in the still disastrous Euro 2008 campaign.

However, the last time Buffon missed a major tournament through injury, as he did with Euro 2000, his understudy Francesco Toldo stepped up brilliantly to help Italy through a dramatic semi-final penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands.