'Alex Marquez could make surprise return from horror crash in Brno'

The Barcelona-Catalunya circuit fell silent on May 17 when Pedro Acosta’s KTM lost power and slowed dramatically heading towards turn 10. Marquez then crashed into it, seeing his Gresini Ducati split in half as he was sent barrel rolling down the side of the track.

Despite the terrifying scenes, a positive update was soon issued, and Marquez was able to celebrate successful collarbone surgery in hospital while entering a neck brace to stabilise a fracture to his C7 vertebrae.

The 2025 runner-up has offered a few updates in the weeks since, mainly still wearing protection around his neck as he missed rounds seven and eight in Mugello and Hungary.

Now, an update from El Mundo Deportivo in his native Catalunya says he could return for the next round in Brno, Czechia, having missed Mugello and Hungary.

The Spanish outlet claims Marquez is having a ‘definitive medical test’ on Tuesday to determine if he’s able to take part in Brno a month on from his accident.

The 30-year-old has shared a number of updates from his recovery that have shown him throwing away the sizable neck brace from the initial incident. In an update on May 27, he also reflected on the weekend with his YouTube followers:

“When I arrived at the hospital - I think it was around 3:30pm - I started to remember everything 100 per cent. I asked to see the crash because I more or less had flashes of it, but I didn’t remember 100 per cent, and I asked to see it.

“At that moment, I honestly realised how lucky I had been to avoid the wall on the right, how I entered that corner, how I fell. And there I became, somewhere, aware of all the good luck that I had.

"Sunday, I had my surgery, and I felt good about that. That night, I was at the ICU [intensive care unit] as a precaution so that nothing would get out of control. I was discharged on Monday morning and travelled to Madrid.

“I arrived home and I was still feeling bad. The pain had come down from the medications and the pain increased a lot, and I decided to spend two more nights at the International Ruber.

“It’s not an injury where, like last year, I broke my finger, you fall down and you automatically think about recovering. It’s an injury or a fall where the impact is so great that you have to land again on the ground and then process it for a week or so for the body to return to a little to normal for a lot of pain.

“As of today, I’m focused on returning. It’s not when, but how. Being 100 per cent prepared to come back and knowing that you have no injury, and you can give your 100 per cent on the track - that’s where I’m focused.”

The most recent on-track update in fact came from Alex’s older brother Marc who was attending Formula 1’s Barcelona Grand Prix on Sunday 14, telling DAZN:

“Alex is in the process. Recovery is like this: you come out of surgery, the first week is very difficult, then the second week… and now he’s at the point where you have to keep him on a tight leash.

“He’s already looking better; he wants to start doing things, start preparing physically. But he has a great team of doctors and physiotherapists who are setting the timeline for him. And, of course, he wants to return as soon as possible, but with guarantees.”

Marc's has had injury problems of his own, injuring his foot in Le Mans and undergoing double surgery to correct a bent screw in his shoulder. He returned in Mugello and spoke about Alex's crash in a media scrum, as per Mat Oxley: