“Wild animal” Marquez told surgeon: “I’ll end up on the podium or on the ground”
The six-time MotoGP champion has admitted that his injury problems worsened in part because he rushed back too quickly after his notorious crash in Jerez in 2020.
Last summer he underwent a fourth major operation on his right arm, a career-threatening procedure that was necessary to cure the intolerable pain he felt when riding.
He told GQ: "On Thursday of the Mugello Grand Prix I was ready to race when they called me [from the Mayo Clinic] and said: 'Hey, get off the bike, we've confirmed that you have 34 degrees of rotation and that's inhumane, I don't know what you're doing with your arm, but it's too much’.
“I had always been told that more than 20 degrees was already an exaggeration and there was 34.”
Against medical advice, Marquez competed in the Italian MotoGP and finished 10th.
"Thinking about it now, I say: 'You are going at 350 km/h with your head somewhere else, [knowing] that next week you are going to have surgery.”
Marquez revealed about his conversation with the medical professionals: "I looked at the doctor and said: 'Look, I'm a wild animal that you have right now in a cage. When you open it, I'm going to run away, so open it only when you see me ready, when you know there's not going to be any risk.'
“I told him so, as it is, and he understood it and said: 'Well, three months, still’.
“I asked him that because I had already lived the experience of rushing, and if the doctor tells me that in a month or a month-and-a-half I can test the bike, I know I'm going to go and try it."
"I will end up on the podium or I will end up on the ground."
The full extend of Marquez’s surgery and his gruelling rehabilitation will be exposed in an Amazon Prime documentary set for release prior to the start of the 2023 season.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
