Marc Marquez undergoes third surgery on arm to speed up ‘slow healing’ process

Honda has confirmed Marc Marquez has undergone surgery for a third time to speed up the process of recovery five months on from the accident that ruled him out of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship.

The Spaniard underwent two operations in the weeks following the incident in Jerez in July, the latter of which ultimately forced him to withdraw from the entire season, scuppering his quest for a seventh MotoGP riders’ title.

However, with recovery not progressing as swiftly as hoped, Marquez has gone under the knife for a third time to give him a better chance of getting back to full fitness before the start of the 2021 MotoGP season.

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“Marc Marquez has undergone a new operation on his right arm as a result of the slow healing of the humerus bone, which has not improved with specific shock wave treatment,” read a statement from Honda.

“Today the rider has undergone surgery at the Hospital Ruber Internacional, in Madrid, for a pseudarthrosis of the right humerus.

“The surgery, carried out by a team made up of doctors Samuel Antuña, Ignacio Roger de Oña, Juan de Miguel, Aitor Ibarzabal and Andrea Garcia Villanueva, consisted of the removal of the previous plate and the placement of a new plate with the addition of an iliac crest bone graft with a corticoperiosteal free flap.”

Marquez fell 21 laps into the season opening Spanish MotoGP when he crashed heavily at Turn 3, with the injury to his arm occurring when he was glanced by his Honda’s front tyre as he came down.

Despite an attempt to race on at the following Andalucia MotoGP race, Marquez got as far as FP4 before choosing to withdraw. He then underwent a second surgery to fix a damaged plate that had been inserted into his arm, prompting a long recovery period that would ultimately span the entire season.

Nonetheless, Honda’s official line remains that Marquez will be back on the RC213V for the first tests in February, before making his race comeback in Qatar in March.