Miguel Oliveira’s injury in the aftermath of his Spaniard Grand Prix crash is more substantial than expected, his RNF Aprilia MotoGP team has revealed.
Oliveira was ruled out of the Jerez race on Sunday when he was collected in a crash involving Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati).
Missing the restart after the subsequent red flag, he was taken to the medical centre and diagnosed with a dislocation of the humerus bone on his left arm, which was subsequently fixed on location.
However, while the initial check-up hadn’t revealed any fractures, a subsequent trip to the hospital in Jerez de la Frontera did.
Oliveira’s examination there “showed that the damage was bigger than expected and revealed a small fracture in the humerus of his left shoulder”, the team said on social media.
He is now set to undergo further checks this week.
The injury continues a brutal if fast start to life for Oliveira at RNF Aprilia, as he had already sat out one of the four rounds so far due to the Portimao hit from Marc Marquez causing tendon damage in his right leg.
Team owner Razlan Razali called for stricter sanctions for offences like Marquez’s in the aftermath of that crash, but on this occasion didn’t feel like his former rider Quartararo – who was penalised – had done anything particularly wrong to cause the crash that left Oliveira injured again.
“We’re just wondering when,” he told The Race when asked how it felt to be so close to big results but keep suffering setbacks.
“We know it’s there, we know it’s coming, but that’s motorsport, I guess. It can only be positive that it will come, but hopefully the injury, he can recover from it soon enough.”
Oliveira’s team-mate Raul Fernandez suffered with arm pump during a fruitless Spanish GP that yielded just one point, and expects to go in for surgery on Thursday.
Asked to compare his team’s current travails with the situation from last year, when it struggled for results with Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder and ultimately lost its title sponsor WithU, Razali said: “Last year was difficult in all areas, we’re talking about the sustainability, financial, everything, everything just went to s**t.
“Here we have a good partner [in new majority owner CryptoDATA] who is enthusiastic, motivated.
“We were fifth yesterday and then this thing happens. That’s sport I guess, that’s the best way I can convince myself, what else can you say?”
