'The clock is ticking' - should MotoGP star Marc Marquez retire?

Despite Marquez showing the ability to still win MotoGP races in 2021, the Repsol Honda rider continues to be plagued by injury following a third case of diplopia, the second in six months. 

Marquez, who had one of the worst weekends of his professional career in Indonesia - suffered four crashes all of which were over 100mph - was ruled out of the Grand Prix due to a horrific crash in warm-up. 

Marquez was launched from the top of his 2022 RC213V machine before landing on his head, an accident that left the 29 year-old in very bad shape. 

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Diplopia, also known as double vision, is one of the worst injuries an athlete could have which is why Keith Huewen believes ‘the clock is ticking’ on Marquez’s stunning MotoGP career. 

Speaking on the latest episode of Crash.net’s MotoGP podcast, Huewen said: ”It’s definitely better for him physically (to retire), there’s no doubt about that. Mentally it won’t be better for him obviously. 

“The clock is ticking… I think we’ve all felt that for some time. Originally, when he didn’t get hurt when he would crash a lot; we would all say ‘it’s only a matter of time’, then he would get hurt and we would all say he’s going to have a massive one that’s career ending. 

“Nobody wants to see it and nobody really wants to discuss it to be honest with you. But it’s something that as journalists and speculators of the sport we’ve got to. This injury he’s got at the moment it’s not like; if I can put it like a mechanical injury where you have a broken arm or a pin or whatever it is that you can fix mechanically. 

“An eye injury, for me, being completely non medical, is a bit like a brain injury. It’s something you can’t do anything about and it is what it is and you have to get over whatever the circumstances of it are. 

“Worryingly, the more he has (crashes) the more it’s going to compound his fragility. Every time he falls down, and every time he recovers from this now, he is going to be subconsciously nervous about everything that he used to do, like extending an arm, making a move of any kind.”

How will this affect Marquez off-track?

With the six-time premier class world champion at the peak of his powers as recently as 2019, a year where he finished all-but one race on the podium, breaking records was very much a ‘when’ as opposed to ‘if’ scenario.

But with the last three years being more defined by injury than on-track success, Huewen also believes the continued double vision problems could affect the mental well-being of the Spaniard.

“This is going to have a compounding effect on his performance, on his mental well-being and on where he ends up over the course of 2022,” added the former British champion and grand prix rider. 

“I just have to feel that the writing is on the wall from my point of view. It looks like Marquez is at the end of a career that looked like it had a fair way still to run. 

“We know his style is to crash and to save the unsavable and the one’s that are even unsavable for him are turning into quite big crashes. 

“You cannot bang your head. How many times have I talked about it and has it been talked about - we are very concerned in MotoGP, in the industry - I’m very concerned that we don’t do enough head injuries and about concussion.” 

It remains to be seen whether Marquez will take part in next week’s American MotoGP, after the statement from Honda was solely about missing the Argentina round. A further inspection will take place early next week to determine his availability.