The pairing will be replaced by travelling reserve Megan Jones and Allofasudden, who journeyed with Rose (pictured top) from Australia.

The team vets had left the decision to the 11th hour to provide Rose and Taurus with every opportunity to get their start at the Games.

But after extensive veterinary examination and monitoring, vets have deemed the horse not recovered sufficiently to withstand the extreme pressure of the Olympic eventing competition.

Equestrian section manager Brett Mace said the nature of the sport is that these sorts of injuries in horses happen, which is why the travelling reserves are on hand.

Earlier this month, British eventer Piggy French, winner of the Olympic Test event on the Greenwich Park course, had to drop out due to an injury to her horse, Topper, and was replaced by Nicola Wilson on Opposition Buzz.

Shane Rose and Taurus just days before vets declared the horse unfit for competition

"This is not uncommon for equestrian for a horse to sustain an injury of this nature close of a major campaign and while the injury is not serious, there is just not enough time for recovery with just under a week to go," said Mace.

"There is no doubt this is a blow for the team and we feel for Shane who has worked for many years preparing Taurus for these Games.

"He is a hard working athlete who was a formidable part of our silver medal Beijing team.

"But we had to take the advice of our vets in relation to performance and also horse welfare and therefore Megan Jones and Allofasudden will be added to the team.

"Megan has been working with her horse to ensure they are competition ready.

"She has the experience and proven track record to make it at this level of competition after finishing with a team silver medal and fourth individually at Beijing.

Megan Jones riding Allofasudden

"The team now needs to focus on finalising preparation, and while Shane will be a loss, we feel our medal chances remain just as strong," he said.

The eventing team will head to Greenwich Park on Tuesday ahead of the start of the competition on July 28.

But there is at least a good precedent for the Australian team.

The last time reserves were substituted into their eventing team was in 1992 and 1996, when Gill Rolton stepped into teams which, on both occasions, went on to win team gold medals.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]