Marquez has third surgery on broken arm
Marc Marquez has undergone another operation on his fractured right arm, following failure of the previous surgery.
Despite specific shockwave treatment following the second surgery in August, there were signs of pseudarthosis, a condition that essentially means the two sections of broken bone were not joining together.
On 3 December, Marquez underwent an eight-hour operation at the Hospital Ruber Internacional in Madrid. The length of the surgery was due not only to the requirement for the old plate to be removed and a new plate fitted, but also for a bone graft from the iliac crest (upper pelvis) to be added.
Normally, this is enough to treat long bone fractures, but the latest Marquez surgery also saw a corticoperiosteal free flap (bone flap from the lower femur) added to further promote union of the two sections of the broken humerus.
On 5 December, the Hospital Ruber Internacional team provided an update on Marquez’s condition, declaring his post-operative clinical situation satisfactory, but that cultures obtained during the surgery confirmed there was a past infection in the fracture. As a result, Marquez underwent specific antibiotic treatment, which will be ongoing following his discharge from hospital on 13 December.
History of the Injury
The original fracture was suffered on 19 July, during the latter stages of the season-opening MotoGP race at Jerez, when Marquez crashed and his Honda RC213V collided with him in the gravel trap.
Initial surgery following that incident saw the arm plated and Marquez return for the next weekend’s round but withdraw after one session and not take part in the race.
On 3 August, it was revealed Marquez broke the plate while opening a window at his home, with new surgery conducted the following day in a Barcelona hospital. That second operation ruled Marquez out for the MotoGP rounds at Brno, Spielberg and Catalunya, with a return to racing predicted for Misano in mid-September.
However, on 22 August, Repsol Honda Team Manager Alberto Puig stated they would not rush the champion’s return and that the recovery process would be “modified” from the original plan. Ruled out for up to three months, a best case scenario would have seen Marquez compete in four races, or only one race in a worst case scenario.
On 10 November, ahead of the penultimate round of the 2020 season at Valencia, Repsol Honda Team confirmed Marquez would not take part in either of the remaining rounds at Valencia and Portimao, and that recovery would be the focus ahead of a return to racing in 2021.
Recovery time for the third surgery carried out on 3 December is unknown, but some sources have predicted Marquez could be out of action for up to five months. If correct, those predictions would see the six-time MotoGP World Champion potentially miss the first three races of the 2021 season, which on the provisional calendar are all flyaways, with a return for the fourth round at Jerez in late April.
