French America's Cup skipper breaks shin

French sailor Franck Cammas has suffered a double shinbone fracture in a catamaran training mishap.

America's Cup skipper Franck Cammas of Groupama Team has undergone successful surgery after sustaining a double shinbone fracture in a training accident.

Cammas will be sidelined for several weeks before starting rehabilitation in January, the team said on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old Frenchman was injured when he fell off his high-performance catamaran and the rudder sliced into his right ankle.

The accident happened on Monday when he and his team were training on two foiling GC32 catamarans at the National Sailing School in Quiberon Bay.

Cammas was thrown overboard while the catamaran was going full speed in 17 knots of wind.

Cammas was rushed to shore and then flown by a medical helicopter to a hospital in Nantes, where he had surgery on Monday evening.

Cammas was traveling at 25 knots (31 miles per hour), and his foot was reportedly partially severed after the accident.

Following the operation, doctors told Cammas that he would not lose the use of his right foot, and that the arteries and nerves had not been impacted.

His team is hopeful he can resume competing at some point next year, although only after "a long period of rehabilitation"- appearing to rule him out of next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Cammas is one of the world's leading multi-hull sailors.

Groupama Team France is a new team this America's Cup cycle.

It finished a distant last place in the six-boat fleet after the first three America's Cup World Series regattas.


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Source: AAP



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