Mir explains the vision issues behind his long MotoGP absence
Joan Mir has revealed that vision problems and associated chronic fatigue were behind his absence from MotoGP race action for the past six weeks.
But now with a full treatment plan completed and weeks of rest at home, he feels ready to return at 100% for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
Mir withdrew from San Marino GP in mid-September following complaints of fatigue and, following adverse blood tests in the days after, has been on the long term sick list since, missing 44 days from the paddock and races in Austria, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia.
With little information on his condition over the past weeks, there has been plenty of paddock speculation about what exactly the 2020 world champion was suffering from, with vision issues one of the theories raised - something he explained on his return to the paddock without going into too much detail.
"I'm so happy to be back," he replied when asked by The Race about his condition. "As you can imagine. It's been a period that I simply needed to stop, because I had some vision problems that at the beginning we didn't really know what was happening.
"Related to this was the tiredness, but quite extreme. It was a process that was getting worse in the last races I did, in the first part of the season. I was forced to stop. I started treatment with [MotoGP medical director] Doctor Charte, and we could understand a little bit the problem.
"I think the cause was related to one problem I had in the past with the vision, and with the stress of the races it was getting worse. The tiredness was related to this thing, but until the moment where we understood this thing, we made a lot of tests."
Prior to his long-term absence from the paddock, it's not exactly been an easy season for Mir in his final stint as a Honda racer, crashing out of nine of his 14 full distance MotoGP races this season so far.
But, now armed with the understanding of the condition his body was in throughout the season, he also says that he's now able to start putting together some of the pieces that explain his year as well as returning to action at his maximum.
"Now I have a lot of answers about the things that happened," he explained. "In the end, I will keep it for me, for my future, but I think it will be something very important for the future.
"Tomorrow I will tell you [if I am at 100%], because it's not the same to go with the training bike, with the speed you go there and the speed you go here. It's different. But how I feel is a lot better than before, and I expect that I will feel good."
Marini returns too
The works Honda team was forced to withdraw entirely from last week's Phillip Island event as it wasn't running Mir's bike due to injuries to previous stand-ins Taka Nakagami and Aleix Espargaro and then lost team-mate Luca Marini to illness too after just two practice laps.
Marini is also fit to return this weekend, so Honda is back to full strength. His condition was described last weekend as a virus, and he explained the unusual symptoms on Thursday at Sepang.
"It was pretty strange," said Marini, "something I have never felt before. Really zero strength, zero power, but also a lot of problems to move my hands, my fingers, and my feet. Like arthritis.
"It was even difficult to write a message with the phone, something that I've never had before.
"After the first laps in Phillip Island I understood that it was a stupid thing to try and race there.
"Yesterday was the first day that I started to feel OK, and today I made another step, so I'm pretty sure that here I can compete more or less as normal. Obviously I will not be at 100% without training, without jumping on the bike, but just to be on the bike will be a pleasure."
