until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Honda MotoGP rider Marc Marquez will have to undergo yet another surgery as a consequence of his career-altering 2020 injury.
The plans for Marquez’s latest surgical intervention were announced by Honda MotoGP boss Alberto Puig in an impromptu Saturday press conference during the Italian Grand Prix weekend at Mugello, with the news having been broken by Speedweek earlier in the day.
The surgery, which will encompass Marquez’s right shoulder and right humerus bone, will be carried out in the United States at the Mayo Clinic after the Mugello race. No timeline for Marquez’s return has been mentioned, but he will presumably cede his bike to test rider Stefan Bradl, who has been his frequent stand-in over the last couple of years.
The surgery will be the fourth operation that Marquez has had to have on his right arm since first crashing out during the opening race of the 2020 season at Jerez. Shattering his humerus bone in that fall, he underwent surgery two days later to have the injury fixed with internal metal plates before rushing back into action the following weekend at the Spanish track’s second race of the COVID-struck year.
Though he didn’t race, the damage to the extensive metalwork inserted to his arm had already been done in his failed attempt to qualify, weakening the plates to the extent that he then finally snapped it days later while opening a glass door at his home.
That set in place a chain of events that would eventually see him sitting out the entire 2020 season and some of 2021, as he underwent bone grafts from his pelvis into the arm to attempt a repair to the bone, as well as battling a dangerous infection picked up during surgery.
It’s been an uphill battle for Marquez since his eventual return as he fought to find his physical form again – a process set back further by being forced to spend much of the past winter again unable to train after a separate head injury sustained while training led to a return of previous double vision problems.
That all comes on top of an already weakened right arm, the result of needing an extensive rebuild to his shoulder in the winter prior to the Jerez crash. The result of a decade of impacts from one of the most crash-prone riders in the championship’s history, it was the second time in two years he needed the operation, first on his left and then again on his right joint.
Consequently, the start to 2022 has arguably so far been the poorest of Marquez’s career, with the six-time MotoGP champion still yet to score a podium after seven races, with a best finish of fourth coming at Jerez earlier this month.
He was arguably denied a chance to win for the seventh time in nine attempts at the Circuit of the Americas in April when his Honda suffered a technical problem that sent him to the back of the pack on the opening lap before rallying back to sixth – but it remains the only time this year that there’s been any sign of the old dominant Marc Marquez of 2019.
With him tenth the title race and 48 points behind reigning champion and current points leader Fabio Quartararo, it means that any realistic hope of picking up a seventh premier-class crown (which would equal rival Valentino Rossi) this year has probably already escaped him, something that has undoubtedly also aided in the decision to undergo another operation right away.
