If Marc Marquez has another great talent outside of riding a motorcycle, it's keeping the media and public from knowing his true physical state. A case in point was when he crashed at the French GP this April, breaking his fifth metatarsal, which required surgery to fix; the fact that he needed surgery meant he could reveal to the world that he'd been planning to have surgery on his right shoulder anyway due to a screw in his shoulder pressing on the radial nerve.
Now, his surgeon, Dr. Samuel Antuña, has spoken to El Periodico and given us insight into how his right arm is functioning.
The interview centered around a photo Marquez posted recently, showing him hanging from a pull-up bar. The picture gave us a rare glimpse into his physique since his surgery this past April. While he's hanging from the bar, we get a clear view of just how different his right arm is from his left; his right is skinnier, but the most eye-opening aspect is the bite-shaped chunk missing from the area around his lat.
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Dr. Antuña explained in the interview what the nine-time World Champion's body has been through and what caused the disfigurement around his lat. Dr. Antuña stated, "Look, when you become unbalanced like Marc has, having undergone a lot of operations in that area of the body, seriously affecting all his muscles, they don't function mechanically like those in the left arm do; that's obvious, isn't it?"
It seems as though the shape around Marquez's armpit is a result of his bones and muscles not quite working together as they should. But looks are one thing; in Marquez's world, everything revolves around performance. As of late, we seldom know where Marquez's level of fitness sits; likewise, when he wins or performs poorly, we rarely know whether it's due to his physical state or something else. But Dr. Antuña explained just how badly Marquez's right arm is performing.
The surgeon said, "Putting a real value on Marc's arm is impossible, because he has such a capacity to compensate for its shortcomings that… I don't know. What I can tell you is that that arm is very limited in strength, especially the biceps. I think the expression that Marc is currently running with one and a half arms accurately reflects the current state of his right arm."
Effectively, it sounds like the Dr. is saying Marquez's arm is working at around 50% of its capacity, or at least 50% of what his left arm is operating at. He went as far as to say that Marquez now struggles to play padel. Luckily for Marquez, he races motorcycles and refuses to let his injuries get the best of him for the time being.
