Marc Marquez’s season of pain took another brutal turn on Sunday after the reigning MotoGP champion underwent successful double surgery in Madrid following his violent crash during the French Grand Prix sprint at Le Mans.
Marc Marquez suffered a frightening highside crash on Saturday after losing control of his Ducati, launching both rider and bike into the air in one of the most dramatic incidents of the weekend.
The Spaniard fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot and was immediately ruled out of Sunday’s main race.
Ducati confirmed that surgeons successfully stabilized the fracture before carrying out a second procedure on Marquez’s right shoulder, an operation that had already been scheduled before the crash reshaped his recovery plans.
The shoulder issue had lingered since last year’s Indonesian Grand Prix, where Marquez aggravated an old injury that continued to trouble him throughout the season. Doctors removed two screws and a displaced bone fragment from a previous Latarjet surgery performed in 2019 after the material began compressing the radial nerve in his shoulder.
The 33-year-old admitted the problem had quietly undermined both his riding and confidence for months.
“I realised something wasn’t right,” Marquez told DAZN. “The screw had moved and it was touching the radial nerve. That’s what caused mistakes, inconsistency and unexpected crashes.”
The crash itself was another painful reminder of how fragile Marquez’s comeback has become.
After planting his right foot awkwardly on the track moments before the accident, the eight-time world champion was thrown violently from the bike as his Ducati cartwheeled through the gravel beside him.
He was later seen hopping on one leg before being taken to the medical centre.
For a brief moment earlier on Saturday, however, the old Marquez had reappeared.
The Spaniard electrified Le Mans by smashing the lap record in qualifying and securing a front-row start, raising hopes that he was finally rediscovering the speed that once made him untouchable in MotoGP.
But those hopes faded quickly in the sprint as he slipped from second to seventh before the crash ended his race.
The latest setback continues a frustrating spiral for Marquez, who has battled injuries, inconsistency and fading confidence since colliding with championship rival Marco Bezzecchi at last year’s Indonesian Grand Prix shortly after sealing another world title.
He missed the final four races of the 2025 season and has struggled to adapt fully to the Ducati this year, failing to record a single podium finish despite flashes of brilliance.
“It’s not that the others are faster,” Marquez admitted before the French Grand Prix weekend. “It’s that I’m slower.”
The Spaniard has now fallen to seventh in the standings, trailing championship leader Bezzecchi by 71 points as Ducati’s title challenge increasingly slips away.
Marquez will miss next weekend’s Catalan Grand Prix and is now targeting a return at the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello later this month, a crucial race on Ducati’s home soil.
