Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez is set to spend another “two or three months” on the sidelines before returning to competition, his Honda team has announced.
The eight-time champion broke the upper arm bone at the opening round of the 2020 season in Jerez one month ago and immediately underwent surgery to have a titanium plate fitted to the bone.
However, after attempting to return to MotoGP action only five days later, he sustained further injuries to his arm and required a second operation days later to have the plate replaced.
Initially aiming for a comeback at the next round of the championship in Misano in two weeks’ time, Honda has confirmed today that that will not happen, with Marquez’s return to MotoGP action now potentially not happening until the season is almost complete in November.
Speaking in a statement, team boss Alberto Puig said: “There has been a lot of talk about Marc’s recovery and the various deadlines, but from the first day after the second operation we have said that the only objective that exists is for him to be one hundred percent.
“We do not want to rush. Once Marc is in a position to return and compete at the level he knows, then we will think about the next objective.”
The news means that any lingering hopes of a title challenge are all but gone. Marquez has already missed five rounds of the championship, and with the ultra-condensed 2020 season thanks to the coronavirus pandemic a further delay of months means a successful title defence is impossible.
Marquez was pictured last weekend watching the Austrian Grand Prix from home with a cast on his wrist, which immediately prompted speculation that the nerve trauma from undergoing repeated surgeries on the arm was perhaps more severe than initially anticipated.
A doctor experienced with orthopedic surgery, who spoke to The Race earlier this week, confirmed that normally wrist casts are only used after surgery like Marquez’s to manage nerve damage, indicating that further recovery time would be needed.
