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Marc Marquez news: Could his Indonesian injury be one recovery too many?

Marc Marquez

Once a rider known for his victories and dominant displays out on track, the past three years have been more about Marc Marquez's crashes and his recoveries - not on the track but in the hospital bed.

The 29-year-old Spaniard has undergone more operations than races won since breaking his arm at the 2020 season-opening Spanish Grand Prix.
His latest being a violent high-side in Indonesia, in March 2022, damaging the nerves in his eyes.
A deity in the MotoGP world, one too many serious injuries has Planet Sport wondering if Marquez's days of winning World titles are behind him.

Terrible 2020 for Marquez

Marquez burst onto the MotoGP scene in 2013, winning that year's title with Honda and has since added five more P1s to his extremely impressive tally.

He lined up on the 2020 grid, the favourite to take a seventh title and equal Valentino Rossi's number of premier class titles, and the nine overall. But it all came to nothing at the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix when he crashed, badly breaking his right arm.

And so began a wretched year for the Spanish rider.
Although he tried to make the grid at the very next race in Andalusia, he withdrew due to the pain he was suffering and that was the last time he was seen that year.

Marquez underwent three operations, the first where a titanium plate was inserted, the second was because he'd stressed the injury by trying to return too soon, and the third involved a bone graft as his humerus had taken too much of a battering in the first two operations, leaving him with an injury from which he was not healing.

His lengthy recovery meant he finally returned to MotoGP in April the following year, seventh at the Portuguese MotoGP. Both the rider and Honda were at pains to stress that he would need time to return to form and it wasn't until Germany in June that he claimed his first of three wins.

Marquez injuries continue

His troubles, though, were by no means over, the rider missing the final two races of the season having suffered a concussion during a training crash before again hitting his head at round two of this year's championship, a violent high-side in Indonesia damaging the nerves in his eyes - diplopia.

His reaction to that one signalled a telling change in his mindset as instead of jumping back on the bike, as he would have done in years gone by, he took his time returning.

"I didn't feel motivated to take that risk in Argentina and I didn't want to," he said. "I discussed it with the doctor and we decided to stay home, relax."

He has since returned to the MotoGP fold, scoring points but not podiums in a season in which Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro, Yamaha and Aprilia, have emerged as the favourites.
Therein also lies part of the problem, Honda are no longer the dominant force.
Leaving the development of the bike in 2020 to his brother Alex, inexperienced in his first year in MotoGP, and test rider Stefan Bradl, Honda were put on the backfoot and although Marquez returned for 2021, this time teaming up with Pol Espargaro, they had lost that magic edge they had during Marquez's heydays.
The Japanese manufacturer went as far as to overhaul the RC213V ahead of this season but Marquez is struggling to find his mojo with the bike, admitting he "doesn't understand when I will crash". That could be why this season he is already into double figures when it comes to crashes.

It begs the question: when will the rider declare enough is enough?

Jorge Lorenzo did at the end of the 2019 season, the Italian citing his injuries and also a bad crash at a test in Montmelo that had him seeing the "light".

Unless race wins begin to dull the pain, that light may soon be shining down on Marquez.

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