Scotland's leading male triathlete David McNamee will join Alistair Brownlee and Non Stanford on the sidelines for the opening event of the ITU World Series in Auckland.
The 25-year-old from Irvine, who trains with Brownlee and Stanford at Leeds, has not recovered from a broken wrist following a bike crash last month and is also likely to miss the second race in Cape Town, South Africa on 27th April.
McNamee achieved three top 10 finishes in the 2013 World Series in San Diego, Yokohama and Stockholm but will now have an even stronger focus on representing his country on home soil in Strathclyde Park in the Commonwealth Games in July.
Stanford and Brownlee both confirmed earlier this week they won't be racing in New Zealand next month, with the reigning ITU women's champion picking up a foot injury recently and the current men's Olympic champ opting to rest his lingering achilles injury.
(Main image: Delly Carr/ITU)