Marc Marquez’s two-year battle against arm and eye injuries were enough to prompt his grandfather to implore the six-time MotoGP champion to call it a day.
Marquez responded by promising that the latest operation to improve mobility in his right arm, the fourth surgery on the beleaguered bone since July 2020, will be the last.
Speaking to DAZN, Marquez said: “My grandfather told me: ‘leave it now, you have enough to live on, what you’ve done is done, leave it’.
“I promised my grandfather: ‘It’s the last chance for the arm’. I told him that if this one doesn’t… there are no more places [on the arm] left to open.”
Fortunately, Marquez is already noticing an improvement following June’s bone alignment operation in the USA.
“[When] they took the sling off, I started to move my arm, I could pick up a glass normally and I could eat a piece of meat without lifting my elbow,” said the 29-year-old.
“Now I eat like a normal person, it’s just little things. I haven’t lifted my arm 90-degrees for a year. I’ve been on a high for two weeks now, but there will be lows, it happens.”
Earlier this week, Marquez was given the green light to intensify training and assess the condition of his arm on a motorcycle.
Repsol Honda team manager Alberto Puig is hoping Marquez will be fit to complete at least some MotoGP laps at the Misano test on September 6-7, to help advise on bike development for 2023.
Marquez is 15th in the world championship but still the top Honda rider, despite missing seven of this year’s 13 rounds.