A ferocious knee infection hospitalised Team New Zealand and MAPFRE trimmer Blair Tuke for a number of days following the eighth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Tuke was admitted into a Newport hospital to recover from the infection he suffered late in the 5700 nautical mile (10556km) leg fromBrazil to Rhode Island.
"I was actually a bit unwell, I hurt my knee so I ended up in hospital for a couple days when I arrived," Tuke told the Radio Sport's Elliott Smith this morning.
The 2017 America's Cup champion suffered the injury around three or four days before the end of the leg, explaining it was "a cut that went bad".
"[There was] pretty hot conditions across the equator, but it went bad towards the end of the leg and just had to go on," Tuke said.
The Spanish team MAPFRE won Leg Eight of the Volvo Ocean Race by overtaking Peter Burling's Team Brunel in the last 500 metres of the leg.
Tuke praised the efforts of his team for taking the opportunities that were presented to them.
With one day left the team was sitting in fifth place but was able to fight their way into the front in tough sailing conditions.
"We hadn't had a good start to the leg … but it always looked like there was going to be a compression at the end where boats behind catch up because the boats leading are going into lighter winds.
"To get into the position where we did we had to take the opportunities as they presented themselves and one was a big push of breeze between Bermuda and Newport.
