Falling star: How Marc Marquez has battled eye, arm, shoulder injuries
Falling star: How Marc Marquez has battled eye, arm, shoulder injuries
Marc Marquez returns to the MotoGP world championship this weekend at the Grand Prix of the Americas at Austin, a race he has won seven times in eight editions.
He missed the last round in Argentina due to double vision suffered in a high-side crash in Indonesia last month.
AFP Sport looks at the injury history of the Spaniard:
2011 -- In his debut Moto2 season, Marquez, who was battling Stefan Bradl for the title, crashed in practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix. He missed the last two races of the campaign through dizziness.
2012 -- Problems with his vision in the off-season meant right eye surgery but he still claimed the Moto2 world title to add to his 2010 125cc (Moto3) crown.
2013 -- Marquez suffered four crashes over the weekend at Mugello and small fractures in his little finger and big toe at Assen. At Silverstone, he dislocated his shoulder. However, he was still world champion by the end of the bruising campaign.
2019 -- Pre-season shoulder surgery didn't end his domination of the sport as he racked up 12 victories and collected his sixth and most recent elite class world title.
2020 -- Marquez broke his right arm in the opener in Jerez. He returned to the same circuit later in the season for the Andalucia GP just days after surgery. However, after practice, he pulled out and missed the rest of the season. That fall in Jerez meant three operations in total.
2021 -- After missing the first two races of the 2021 campaign, Marquez returned to action for the third round at Portimao in 2021 and then claimed a first race win two years at Sachsenring. However, a training accident brought back the double vision that he suffered 10 years earlier and he missed the last two rounds of the season. He ended 2021 in seventh place in the championship. It was reported that in total he had crashed 22 times in 14 races that season.
2022 -- Marquez was involved in a violent high-side crash at 180kph (112mph) in the warm-up for the rain-lashed Indonesian Grand Prix. He had already crashed twice during qualifying. He was forced to miss round three in Argentina due to another bout of double vision.
(A.Renaud--LPdF)
