until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez’s latest check-up on his damaged right arm suggests good progress is now being made as he continues to battle the injuries sustained at last July’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Marquez broke the arm during the 2020 season-opening Jerez race and exacerbated the damage a week later by returning to action only days after surgery to correct it, bending the titanium plate installed and ruling himself out of the rest of the season.
He then needed further surgery in December, which already potentially sidelined him for up to six months even before an infection in the bone forced a long stay in hospital and a potentially even longer recovery.
But after Marquez’s 10-week check-up for that last surgery, his Repsol Honda team announced that his recovery is now going well.
“A further review of Marc Marquez at the Hospital Ruber Internacional 10 weeks after surgery for an infected pseudoarthrosis of the right humerus, has confirmed a favourable clinical situation,” said a team statement.
“The medical team led by Doctors Samuel Antuña and Ignacio Roger de Ona, and including Doctors Juan De Miguel, Aitor Ibarzabal and Andrea Garcia Villanueva, assessed the radiographic signs of bone consolidation and were satisfied with the progress.
“From now on, and during the next few weeks, Marquez will be able to progress steadily in the process of functional recovery of the operated arm.”
Marquez has essentially been unable to use his arm – let alone to ride a motorbike – since December’s surgery, and now faces months of rehabilitation and physiotherapy to return the arm to full strength.
It’s all but impossible that he’ll be able to make the scheduled start of the season in Qatar next month, with last year’s rushed recovery now forcing Marquez to take his time as he plots his return.
Honda test rider Stefan Bradl is already tipped to replace him in the interim, as he did for the majority of 2020.
