Marc Márquez may miss MotoGP races after breaking arm in Jerez

Marc Márquez will undergo surgery on Tuesday for a fractured humerus after crashing in this weekend’s MotoGP season-opener in Jerez.

The eight-time champion vowed to come back “as soon as possible and with more force” but it is not known when that will be.

Doctors are observing the injury to fully assess the right arm fracture which may include damage to the radial nerve, which helps to control wrist and finger movement. Márquez said that he would have an operation on Tuesday.

A highside with four laps to go ended a barnstorming charge by the reigning champion, who had recovered from 18th — after an earlier slide — to third in the race.

The front tyre of the Honda hit Márquez’s arm as he slid through the gravel at Turn Three, and he was taken to the medical centre.

“Sometimes things don’t go as you expect but the most important thing is to get up and move on. I hope you enjoyed the comeback!” Márquez wrote on Twitter. “Now it’s time to go to the operating room next Tuesday and fix the fracture of the humerus. I promise that I will come back as soon as possible with more force.”

Dr Xavier Mir, MotoGP’s traumatology specialist said: “Marc Marquez has suffered an injury, it seems, from a direct impact of the tyre to the right arm, resulting in a fracture to the shaft of the humerus, a complete fracture although it isn’t completely displaced, with some possible paralysis of the radial nerve, although we’re not certain.

“This injury has been immobilised here for when they decide to move him to Barcelona to carry out a definitive treatment.”

Dr Ángel Chartre, MotoGP’s medical director, said that Márquez should be treated in Barcelona next week. “Tomorrow Dr Mir will leave for Barcelona to proceed with treatment, if there is no more news regarding the tissue, to surgically treat the humerus,” he said. “That being said, we can’t say in any absolute terms if he will be at the next race or Brno or Austria. It’s not the moment, we’ll talk about it next week.”

Read full analysis from Jerez in Mat Oxley’s MotoGP column on Monday.