Leigh McMillan has spoken about the full scale of the shoulder injury he suffered in the Auckland SailGP collision, confirming he has had surgery and faces a lengthy absence from competition while working through a demanding rehabilitation.
The British wing trimmer was on board the DS Automobiles France SailGP Team's F50 during Race 3 on Day 1 of the Auckland SailGP event when the French boat struck the New Zealand Black Foils at high speed. The impact caused serious structural damage to both catamarans and brought the weekend to a premature end for both crews, neither of whom could return to racing before the event concluded.
McMillan has described the collision as almost impossible to process in real time, a violent contact compressed into a fraction of a second that left no opportunity to react.
"It all happened very quickly. The whole thing was over in an absolute flash," he said. "It was really just a split second moment."
France driver Quentin Delapierre gave a similar account of how quickly the situation moved beyond anyone's ability to respond.
"The impact was huge and we never experienced that magnitude of impact," Delapierre said. "Looking at the crash itself, it just happened in less than a second."
With no time to do anything deliberate, McMillan's response was entirely instinctive.
"It was just kind of brace for impact really," he said.
He was thrown hard onto the deck, and once he had gathered his senses he realised the fall had not only hurt him but had also disabled a section of the boat's control systems.
"I hit the deck pretty hard and I could feel that I'd wiped out a load of the control systems on the inside of the boat with my knee."
In the immediate aftermath, McMillan's thoughts were not primarily on himself. French team strategist Manon Audinet had been hurt badly enough to require hospitalisation, and that reality put his own pain firmly into perspective.
"Quite honestly, my situation seemed completely manageable," he said. "There were some really serious injuries at play and that was the absolute priority."
Audinet has since been discharged and is progressing through her own recovery. The French team confirmed she avoided any serious long-term injury.
McMillan needed very little time to understand that his shoulder had taken more than a superficial knock.
"It was almost instant in my mind that there was going to be a more serious situation at hand," he said. "I knew that I had torn something in my shoulder straight away."
Medical assessment made the picture clear.
"I basically had a traumatic tear to the supraspinatus and the scapularis tendons," McMillan said. "They had completely detached from the bone."
Surgery was unavoidable. Orthopaedic specialist Dr Alan Young performed the repair, with a result that satisfied him.
"Dr Alan Young was straight away clear that surgery was required," McMillan said. "He was happy with the way the surgery went."
Now a little more than two weeks on from the operation, McMillan's arm is still immobilised as the repaired tendons gradually reattach to the bone.
"I've got this arm brace here that I've got to be strapped into for four weeks," he said.
The injury means he will miss the next stretch of the SailGP season while he focuses on his recovery.
The effects of the Auckland collision reach well beyond McMillan's personal situation. Both the French F50 and the New Zealand Black Foils F50 suffered major structural damage and are being repaired through SailGP's centralised one-design system. Delapierre explained that the responsibility for restoring the boats to racing condition belongs to the league, not the teams themselves.
"Regarding the boat repair, the French team is not in charge," he said. "It's the responsibility of SailGP and we are supporting them."
No firm timeline has been given for when either boat will be ready to race again.
McMillan has already turned his attention to how the French squad can rebuild momentum across the rest of the season, and he is keen to remain a useful presence for the team even while he cannot sail.
"My heart's already with the team," he said. "I want to see everyone bounce back from this situation and get back on the water."
The DS Automobiles France SailGP Team is working through crew combinations and logistics ahead of upcoming events, though the exact plan has not yet taken shape.
"We haven't got an exact game plan yet for what the next month is going to look like," McMillan said. "The team is going through a transitional period trying to sort out what the crew lineup will be."
He has been clear about wanting to contribute in whatever way he can during that period.
"I want to do everything I can to still help the team through this transitional period."
Delapierre is focused on what lies ahead rather than dwelling on what happened in Auckland.
"We don't have to spend too much time on the past or make it too dramatic," he said. "I just want to go back on the water and have a nice experience with my teammates and some nice victories."
For McMillan, the path back to racing will be measured in months of careful work, but his desire to compete again is as strong as ever.
"The team is super motivated," he said. "I'm super motivated to get back to winning ways."
With surgery behind him and rehabilitation now underway, he is focused on returning to the SailGP fleet in the best possible condition.
