Marc Marquez admits ‘hasty’ MotoGP return was mistake, points finger at doctors

Marc Marquez has admitted the decision to return to MotoGP action just days after undergoing major surgery on his arm was a mistake, but suggests it was the responsibility of doctors to step in and prevent him from doing so.

Marquez saw his quest for a seventh MotoGP world title end at the very first race when he crashed heavily in the season opening Spanish MotoGP in Jerez, leaving him with an arm fracture..

However, despite undergoing surgery to have a plate inserted in the days following, Marquez was back on the Repsol Honda just days later. He’d eventually withdrew mid-way through the race weekend and wouldn’t race again in 2020.

Now Marquez has conceded it was wrong to attempt such a hasty return, but appears to point the finger of responsibility at doctors for not trying to stop him doing so.

“This year has taught me many things. The first, that the attempt to return after the injury was hasty. My plate broke at home, opening a sliding door that I have to go out to the garden. But the plate did not break there, it did so as a result of all the stress that was created in Jerez.

“Trying to return to Jerez was a mistake. I’ve learned that the riders have a virtue and a defect, which is that the riders do not see fear, so the doctors have to make us see it.

“After the first operation, the first question of every rider is: when can I get back on the bike? And it is the doctor who has to know how to stop you, he is the one who has to be realistic. I went to Jerez with the peace of mind that the plate held because they told me so.

“I am brave but not unconscious. If they tell me that the plate can break, I would not have gotten on a 300km/h motorcycle.”

Following his aborted return in July, Marquez went on to undergo a second surgery to fix the plate that had become damaged when he ‘opened a window’, before eventually calling time on his season entirely.

He is currently recuperating in hospital following a third operation five months after contracting an infection which was preventing the injury from healing properly.