Marquez set to undergo two surgeries after horror crash in French GP

Marquez had a heavy fall on Saturday during the sprint race in France. The Ducati rider was launched meters into the air in a violent highside and sustained a fracture in his foot. As a result, he will miss not only the French Grand Prix, but also the race in Catalonia. He has since given a statement, in which he also reveals that he needs surgery on his shoulder again.

That surgery had been planned for some time, Marquez now reveals. "It’s not a very serious injury, but it’s actually happening at the right time," he says about the problem with his shoulder. "Because even before this weekend we had planned to do surgery on my right shoulder after the Catalan GP."

The Ducati rider says he felt something was off since the first races of the 2026 season. "I worked hard at home on my recovery and after Jerez I noticed that something wasn’t working right." He then decided to undergo more medical tests. "I went to the doctors and said: something’s going on. At home I feel good, on a motocross bike I feel good, but as soon as I get on a MotoGP bike my right arm feels completely shot."

According to Marquez, the problems can be traced back to his heavy crash in Indonesia last year. While the original injury had healed well, it later turned out that one of the screws from a previous operation was damaging a nerve in his arm. That issue, he says, primarily surfaced in the specific riding position required on a MotoGP machine. "Because of that, I could sometimes suddenly be fast, without knowing exactly how or why, but I wasn’t consistent and had strange crashes."

Marquez admits that he was already riding extra cautiously at Le Mans because of it. "I was mostly trying to survive, but my body simply doesn’t do what I want." He deliberately kept the problem quiet during the weekend, however. "I don’t like to stand in front of a microphone and complain." According to the reigning world champion, the issue also explains why his season has been so erratic. "As I showed in Q1, I can still be fast. I know how to ride this bike. But as you also saw in the sprint, I can suddenly make a silly mistake without understanding why. If something hits that nerve, my arm simply doesn’t do what I want."

The Spaniard does not expect to return to the title fight anytime soon. Due to his heavy crash at Le Mans, he is now 51 points down in the championship. He will in any case miss the races in France and Catalonia, after which Ducati will decide on a race-by-race basis when he will return. "I’m definitely not riding in Catalunya. After that, we’ll look step by step at how things are going heading into Mugello," Marquez concludes.