Six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Márquez has had a rough time for the past couple of years. Once considered well-nigh unstoppable, the undeniably talented racer has been on a run of serious bad medical luck since breaking his right arm in July, 2020. Since that time, he’s had multiple surgeries, been diagnosed with diplopia twice (that’s double vision, and undoubtedly a major liability on track), and has tried to continue racing through it all.
Having a strong will is one thing, but the physical limitations imposed by his previous injuries have kept Márquez from reaching his goals. That’s why Márquez and his medical team arranged for a fourth surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to try to further address some of the physical limitations he’s been having.
On June 3, 2022, the Box Repsol team announced that Márquez’ surgery was successfully completed in three hours. The surgical team was led by Dr. Joaquin Sánchez Sotelo, and went both smoothly and without complications, according to reports. For the time being, Márquez will remain in the U.S. as he begins his post-operative recovery. Once he’s deemed fit to travel, he will return to Spain to continue with the treatment plan agreed upon by his medical team.
What did the doctors do, exactly? Luckily, Dr. Sánchez Sotelo, who is the Mayo Clinic’s chair of the division of shoulder and elbow surgery, described the process in detail.
"Today we had the opportunity to operate on the right humerus of Mr. Marc Márquez. The procedure was completed in approximately three hours. Despite the complexity of the procedure, the final outcome was satisfactory,” he began.
“Surgery consisted in removing the proximal 2 screws of the posterior plate previously placed by Dr. Samuel Antuña on December of 2020, followed by a rotational humeral osteotomy. Such procedure involves creating a transverse cut of the humeral bone to rotate the humerus along its long axis. The amount of rotation performed today was approximately 30 degrees of external rotation. The humerus was stabilized in the new position using an anterior plate with multiple screws,” he explained.
“Surgery was completed uneventfully. We would like to wish Mr. Márquez a swift recovery and a successful return to his professional career,” Dr. Sánchez Sotelo concluded.
Here’s hoping that recovery goes as well as it can, and that this surgery is finally able to help restore Márquez to a level of physical ability that he’ll find satisfactory for accomplishing his goals.
