The doctor who operated on MotoGP champion Marc Marquez’s shoulder says surgery was necessary to avoid the injury deteriorating to the severity of his 2018 shoulder issue.
Marquez dislocated his left shoulder in training during the 2018 pre-season, with the issue recurring across the campaign and eventually requiring a “complicated” operation at the end of the year.
The Honda rider partially dislocated his right shoulder in a heavy crash during qualifying at Sepang and aggravated it further in a tumble during last week’s Jerez test, after which he took the decision to go under the knife in Barcelona Wednesday.
Doctor Xavier Mir, who carried out the successful operation with his team, says Marquez would have suffered further dislocations during the 2020 season.
Mir aded Marquez’s shoulder would have ended up in the same way as his left one last year without his latest surgery.
“During the season he would have had more dislocations and the injury would have become like the one he had on the left shoulder,” Dr Mir told motogp.com.
“That was a much more complicated operation, with a recovery time initially much longer and this is why he’s made the decision.
“The operation last year had two parts: an open surgery with a small wound, and a second time with an arthroscopy.
“The arthroscopy requires putting a lot of liquid into the joint, which can cause inflammation that can last several days, and on this occasion we’ve been able to avoid this because the injury wasn’t as severe.”
Dr Mir says Marquez will be able to ride in February’s first pre-season test at Sepang, but will not be fully fit.
“It is difficult to evaluate,” Dr Mir said while commenting on Marquez’s recovery time.
“I think he will be ready for the Sepang test, even if he is not at 100% [fitness], but what we need to try to ensure is that, even if he is not for the tests, he starts the championship as healed as possible.
“We are also used to recovery periods for normal people with this kind of injury being four months.
“The riders are used to reducing them to almost half.
“He’s always upbeat, he always seems happy. In the operating theatre he was happy, talking with the nurses.
“He is a person with a very likeable personality and this time he was in a lot less pain and was even more upbeat.”