Leigh McMillan, injured in the Auckland DS Automobiles FRA / Black Foils NZL crash, that resulted in two crew in hospital, reflects on his experience and the injury revealed afterward.
Wing Trimmer with the DS Automobiles team McMillan suffered a traumatic tear to the suppinatus and scapularis tendons, which completely detached from the bone. Two weeks after surgery he expects to be in an arm brace for a further four weeks.
Forced to withdraw from the upcoming SailGP Grand Prix races, he speaks out to share his story: a heartfelt account from an athlete, highlighting resilience, recovery, and the determination to come back stronger.
I knew that I had, you know, torn something in my shoulder straight away really, you know, within those minutes after. It didn’t straight away feel quite as catastrophic as it ended up being.
I met with Dr. Alan Young. He was obviously straight away there’s absolutely no question that you need surgery. I’ve basically had a traumatic tear to the suppinatus and it’s a scapularis tendons. So they’ve completely detached from the bone.
So we’re just over two weeks after the surgery. I’ve got this lovely arm brace here that I’ve got to be strapped into for four weeks. Dr. Alan Young was happy with the way the surgery went, which was great. You know, he was super positive. The team’s been incredibly supportive through this whole journey.
My heart’s already with the team and and you know, I want to see everyone kind of bounce back from this situation and get back on the water and and get the confidence straight back and and you know, we’ll be it with a with a new lineup and and hopefully the success can continue and and I can still be a part of that.
We haven’t got a an exact game plan of what the next month and the events are going to look like. The team is obviously going through a transitional period trying to to sort out what the the crew lineup’s going to be to still help the team through this transitional period.
I’m ready to be involved and and to help wherever possible. We’ve got a a great bunch of people, really positive outlook for the future with the team and we’re going to come out roaring. I’m obviously just incredibly grateful the support that I’ve had, you know, through the medical team at Cell GP.
So, thank you to everyone for getting me to this point, you know, so quickly and and for getting such great care. It’s absolutely awesome to know that I’ve had the best possible surgical outcome.
The team is super motivated. I’m super motivated to get back to winning ways and I can’t wait to see us out there racing again in in Rio and and kicking off where we left off in the last race.
The next SailGP event is the fourth event of 2026: ENEL Rio Sail Grand Prix, Mubadala Brazil, over the weekend of 11-12 April.
After another massive effort by the #SailGP Tech Team the DS Automobiles F50 is now en route to Rio for final repairs and testing.
