Everything Marquez revealed about his injuries and MotoGP return

Defending MotoGP champion Marc Marquez says if he goes into his return from injury aiming to fight for this year’s title he’ll only end up getting injured again.

Marquez, who is 85 points back from current leader Marco Bezzecchi, missed the previous round at Barcelona as he had undergone double surgery in the lead-up - on his right foot, injured at Le Mans, and his right shoulder, which has not been right since Mandalika last year.

His return at Mugello was not viewed as a certainty until very close to the round - but, speaking on Thursday at the Italian Grand Prix venue, he described the foot injury as "peanuts" and something that won't limit him on track.

But the shoulder intervention, originally scheduled to remove a screw that had been pushing on a nerve and thus seemingly limiting his ability and feel on the bike, ended up even more substantial than anticipated.

"I have another big scar there. They opened [it up] well, because to get to that screw - they had planned to take out only one, but when they opened, there was more damage than what they expected. And then they took out two screws plus one bone [fragment]."

Marquez said the surgeons did well to avoid any extra cuts to the muscle but that "still I'm not feeling perfect" - and that the nerve that was being affected cannot yet be back to 100%.

He has been provisionally passed fit to ride at Mugello but with a check-up to follow on Friday - though Marquez made it clear that "of course, if I'm here, it's because I feel like I can do all the weekend - not with the maximum intensity, obviously".

"It takes time because the screw was touching the nerve, the nerve 'disconnected' some muscles. It will take time, but we analysed with our doctors that now is the correct time to jump in on the bike and continue with my evolution - but with the correct mentality."

In an interview with MotoGP.com, he made it clear that he cannot have the gap to Bezzecchi and others up front on his mind - and that the priority instead is to "rebuild" himself more fundamentally.

The implication is that this is about 2027, for which he already has a signed contract with Ducati - but which, contract or no contract, he hinted will have been untenable to go into as a MotoGP rider in his earlier condition.

"f I came back with the mentality of I can win this 'championship', I will be injured again," he said. "So now it's not the correct one. 

"I'm with the mentality to rebuild my future, because, like I rode the first races, I wasn't able to continue. So let's see if in the next races I can rebuild my right arm - and from that point I know that the speed will arrive."

Marc's update on Alex

Brother Alex Marquez being present at rounds with Marc absent through injury - and thus giving updates to media on Marc's condition - has been a familiar sight in MotoGP since the elder Marquez's career-changing arm injury in 2020.

But the roles are reversed currently, with the younger Marquez sidelined after a terrifying collision with Pedro Acosta at Barcelona - in which he suffered fractures to his neck and collarbone.

Marc revealed Alex had to return to hospital for another couple of days soon after coming back home.

"The first week for Alex was tough. It was tough. I picked him up at the airport on Monday, arriving in his house and [once I left] after two hours his girlfriend called me, [saying] 'please, your brother is [doing] super bad, we need to do something.’ 

"Then he went again to the hospital and stayed there for two days. It was bad.

"But after seeing the image [of the crash] from home, I was like ice [frozen], I was watching the situation - and we know the risk we have, it's always there, but when it happens to some of your family or some riders that are very close to you, the impact is even more. 

"So, yes, all Sunday I was suffering a lot, honestly speaking, because I know that this kind of crash, sometimes the [real] damage arrives later. 

"So I was suffering a lot and I gave a big hug on Monday to him. Not only him, but also Johann Zarco was super lucky.

“That Sunday in Montmelo, all the MotoGP family, the motorcycling world, was super lucky and it was a moment that we need to remind everybody that we are humans - we are riders, we are competing, but life is the first thing."