Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez is a doubt for this weekend’s Spanish MotoGP after a dirt bike accident in L’Albi, Tarragona, Spain, left him nursing a badly broken finger.
Hector Martin, Marquez’s communications manager, told CNN: “Marc was dirt track riding on Saturday when he crashed, alone. There was no other bike involved in the crash itself, but he was unlucky and another bike hit his hand while he was down.”
The break needed surgery and Dr. Xavier Mir, Head of the Unit for Hand and Upper Extremities Pathology at the Hospital Universitario Quiron Dexeus in Barcelona, operated on Marquez’s hand.
“The patient presented a deformity to the little finger of his left hand and a subsequent X-ray showed a fracture of the proximal phalanx, with displacement,” Dr. Mir said in a statement.
“Therefore, we decided to treat the injury – as we would in the case of any other patient – by fixing a titanium plate to his finger. This will allow us to initiate functional recovery after 24 hours and give him a chance of racing at Jerez.”
Marquez tweeted a picture of himself with Dr. Mir after the operation, and wrote: “Thanks again to Dr. Mir. What would we do without him!”
Martin said that Marquez is doing well, but his participation in Jerez remains uncertain.
“We’re still not 100% sure,” he said. “The good news is that it’s his left hand; if it had been his right hand, it would have been much worse.”
Marquez’s rocky start to the season – including a spectacular crash at the Argentine MotoGP – has left him 30 points adrift of championship leader Valentino Rossi.
The 21-year-old Catalan, however, is confident he can still clinch a third consecutive title.
“There are lots of things that make me feel very optimistic,” he told reporters last week. “For one, I could have won all three races so far…
“Secondly, in 2013 after the first six races, Dani [Pedrosa] was leading the standings, Jorge [Lorenzo] was second and I was third, 30 points behind Dani, and I still went on to win the title.”
Marquez, a keen dirt bike rider who brings elements of dirt bike racing to his MotoGP riding style, bought his younger brother Alex – a Moto2 rider – a dirt bike for his birthday last week.