Marc Márquez will undergo surgery on Saturday evening after fracturing the fifth metatarsal in his right foot during a heavy crash on lap 12 of the MotoGP French Grand Prix sprint. The Repsol Honda rider confirmed he will take advantage of the required operation to also address a previously scheduled procedure on his right shoulder, moving it forward to Sunday morning in Madrid at the latest.
The nine-time world champion flew back to Spain immediately after the incident to be treated as soon as possible. This means he will miss Sunday’s main race at Le Mans as well as next week’s Catalan Grand Prix. Following the sprint, Márquez now trails championship leader Marco Bezzecchi by 51 points, with 62 points remaining on the table over the next two rounds.
Speaking to DAZN, Márquez detailed the extent of his injuries: “I fractured the fifth metatarsal. I hadn’t mentioned it before, but a shoulder surgery was already scheduled because I’ve been having more trouble than usual this season. I kept trying to convince myself, but something wasn’t right. I went to the doctor, and they discovered that after the Indonesia crash everything looked fine, but the famous screw had broken. It’s in a different position now. I had a very strange sensation and thought I was mentally blocked, but they found that in a MotoGP riding position the screw was touching my radial nerve, making me inconsistent and causing crashes. We’ll do everything at once.
“I need to recover properly to focus on my future. Competing like this isn’t right. I can be fast, but with this problem, you fail when you least expect it. Yesterday I failed on the fast lap. Today I did it again, and the doctors have been positive. After Jerez I went looking for the problem and they found it. That’s good news. I was getting worse on track every race. This happened when it had to, and it gives me more time to recover. I insisted the bike was fine and didn’t want to explain. I’m not one to complain much.”
The crash occurred at Turn 13, at around 109 km/h, after Márquez’s Ducati touched the white line, causing the front to tuck. He hit the asphalt hard with his right foot, then the bike caught him and was thrown violently. “Lucky that’s all he did,” said Joan Mir afterward, with reason, as the bike tumbled dangerously close to him. Fortunately, Márquez got up on his own, though with a clear limp that indicated the foot fracture.
