Photo by Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race - By Riath Al-Samarrai
Ericsson 4 helmsman Tony Mutter has confirmed he has fully recovered from the knee injury that saw him evacuated from the leg one winners a week out of Alicante.
The New Zealander was transferred to a fishing vessel and taken to shore at Cape Verde seven days into the 6,500-nautical mile leg after developing a serious infection in his left knee.
However, having spent two days at a nearby hospital, the 40-year-old, who won the last race onboard ABN AMRO ONE, revealed he is back to full fitness and ready for the November 15 dash to India.
He said: “I will be OK. I’m about 98% now but hopefully I’ll be 100% at the start.”
The round-the-world veteran is not entirely certain how the infection started, but suspects the repercussions could have been dreadful had the decision not been taken to drop him off.
“We never worked out what the infection was,” he said. “It only responded to intravenous antibiotics – it was pretty nasty. I’m glad I was able to get off at Cape Verde. If we had waited until Fernando de Noronha (the next point of land en route, some four days away) I would have been in a lot of trouble. You can get blood poisoning and that sort of thing. Not good. Lose a leg kind of stuff.” - Full report
Ericsson 4 helmsman Tony Mutter has confirmed he has fully recovered from the knee injury that saw him evacuated from the leg one winners a week out of Alicante.
The New Zealander was transferred to a fishing vessel and taken to shore at Cape Verde seven days into the 6,500-nautical mile leg after developing a serious infection in his left knee.
However, having spent two days at a nearby hospital, the 40-year-old, who won the last race onboard ABN AMRO ONE, revealed he is back to full fitness and ready for the November 15 dash to India.
He said: “I will be OK. I’m about 98% now but hopefully I’ll be 100% at the start.”
The round-the-world veteran is not entirely certain how the infection started, but suspects the repercussions could have been dreadful had the decision not been taken to drop him off.
“We never worked out what the infection was,” he said. “It only responded to intravenous antibiotics – it was pretty nasty. I’m glad I was able to get off at Cape Verde. If we had waited until Fernando de Noronha (the next point of land en route, some four days away) I would have been in a lot of trouble. You can get blood poisoning and that sort of thing. Not good. Lose a leg kind of stuff.” - Full report
