In a feat of supreme sportsmanship, leading German event rider Michael Jung has revealed he won his European title at Blair Castle with a broken leg.
The horseman sustained the injury when he fell from one of his rides fischerRocana at the first water complex of the Burghley Horse Trials at the beginning of September.
Despite the pain of the fracture, Michael progressed to not only complete and win Burghley on board another of his horses La Biosthetique Sam but he then won both the team and individual gold medals and European Eventing Championship titles for Germany, riding fischerTakinou, at Blair Castle last weekend.
Michael confirmed via social media that he had undergone surgery on Wednesday to insert two screws into his leg.
It is understood he broke his tibia (shin bone), above the ankle, and required the surgery to restore the bone back into place.
Michael previously made eventing history in 2012 when he became the first horse rider ever to hold the Olympic, World and European Championship titles at the same time.
His efforts at Blair Castle saw the Germans snare European team gold for the third time in succession, where they smashed the remainder of the field by a margin of more than 50 penalties.
The rider who was unable to walk at Blair Castle and who turned to the use of a Segway in order to walk the course and travel around the hilly terrain said that after hearing “a noise in his leg” he finally took the option to travel to hospital this week as a pre-cautionary measure.
Only then was the full extent of his injury revealed.
It is expected the fracture and corrective surgery will now put Michael onto the sidelines for the remainder of the competition season.