Upon completion of the Italian Grand Prix, Marc Marquez will have a fourth surgery to repair his injured right arm. He will leave Italy immediately following the race and travel to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for the May 31st procedure.
Marquez has shown speed since his return to racing, but the injury is keeping him from sitting on his bike correctly.
Sitting 10th in the driver championship standings, a 2022 title is a longshot at this stage of the season, so Marquez and team will concentrate on preparations for a legitimate hunt in 2023, which would be his seventh career MotoGP title. In his five rounds leading up to the Italian GP, Marquez has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth.
“Unfortunately, I have to take a break from the 2022 season that will keep me away from competition for a while,” Marquez said at MotoGP.com. “After all these months of intense work with my new medical team in Madrid, my physical condition has improved and I have reduced the discomfort in my right arm to be able to compete at the Grands Prix, but I still have significant limitations in my humerus that does not allow me to ride the bike properly and achieve the goals I have always set for myself.
“It is for this reason, that together with my medical team ... and after consulting with specialists from the Mayo Clinic, that I have made the decision to carry out a new operation with the aim of improving my position on the bike that will allow me to ride without the current limitations. Personally, I have the maximum motivation and enthusiasm to continue working and to make the effort to return to compete at the highest level.”
Marquez returned to action in the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) and finished sixth in that race after his bike stuttered at the start and forced him to enter Turn 1 last.
No timetable has been announced for his return, but Marquez has said he wants that to be as quickly as possible.