Marc Marquez Breaks Little Finger In Training Crash, Questionable For Jerez

By David Emmett | Sat, 25/04/2015 - 20:21

Marc Marquez has broken a finger in his left hand in a dirt track training crash. The reigning world champion fell heavily, suffering a displaced fracture of the proximal phalange in the little finger of his left hand. This means that the bone between the hand and the first knuckle was broken, and the two parts of the bone moved.

Marquez was taken immediately to the Dexeus Institute in Barcelona, where Dr Xavier Mir, who performs surgery on many of the top MotoGP and WSBK riders, operated on the Spaniard. The bone was put together again and then fixed with a titanium plate. Marquez is due to start functional recovery within 24 hours.

The press release issued by Honda is strangely hesitant about Marquez' prospects of racing at Jerez. The press release says, in rather unconventional wording, that Marquez participation at Jerez "has not been ruled out." The aim for Marquez will be to ride, but the injury sustained is a particularly difficult one. Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics describes fractures of the proximal phalange as "potentially the most disabling fractures in the hand". Full recovery for normal patients is 4 to 6 weeks. In motorcycle racer terms, that's 2 to 3 weeks.

The only positive from this injury is that it is on his left hand, in the little finger. It is the least used of the fingers, though Marquez' style is to grip the bars with the fingers on the grips, rather than with the little finger off the grip, as some others like to do. No doubt that Marquez will do all he can to try to race at Jerez, but it is far from certain he will do so. With Marquez already 30 points down to championship leader Valentino Rossi, Marquez cannot really afford another zero points in the championship, he needs all the points he can get. A decision on participation will only have to be made before FP4 on Saturday afternoon, giving Marquez another day to assess his condition.

Marquez' injury puts the Repsol Honda team in a difficult situation for Jerez. Dani Pedrosa is not yet confirmed as racing at the Andalusian circuit, and if Marquez is forced to miss the race as well, HRC would need to field two replacement riders. Though the most obvious choice for Honda would be test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, the controversy surrounding Casey Stoner's offer to race for Dani Pedrosa at Austin and Argentina will no doubt see his name be put forward once again. 

With both riders likely to undergo medical checks on the Thursday, we may not know who is racing for the Repsol Honda team until Friday morning at the earliest, and Saturday afternoon at the latest.

Below is the press release on Marquez' crash and injury:

Marc Marquez undergoes successful operation on little finger fracture

Repsol Honda rider operated on this afternoon to treat fracture to little finger of left hand, suffered while training dirt track. His participation in the Spanish Grand Prix has not been ruled out.

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez has been successfully operated on this afternoon by Dr. Xavier Mir, Head of the Unit for Hand and Upper Extremities Pathology at the Hospital Universitario Quiron Dexeus in Barcelona.

Dr. Mir commented after the surgery that Marquez had “attended the casualty department of the Hospital Universitario Quiron Dexeus having suffered a crash in training this morning. The patient presented a deformity to the little finger of his left hand and a subsequent X-Ray showed a fracture of the proximal phalanx, with displacement. Therefore, we decided to treat the injury -as we would in the case of any other patient- by fixing a titanium plate to his finger. This will allow us to initiate functional recovery after 24 hours and give him a chance of racing at Jerez.”

MotoGP
Jerez, Spain
Honda
Marc Marquez
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Comments

If Rossi is going to get another championship, it'll be now. Everything seems to be going his way lately.

Would be great if Honda could give Casey a ride. But of course it'd be best if Marquez was there too then.
Rossi vs Marquez vs Stoner. Legendary.

Pushing very hard in training.....looks like the old dirt track has come to bite hard again

seriously. he's fallen on his head the last few seasons so many times, and never affected his racing 'til now.

this season, he makes bad decisions and now an unfortunate injury that threatens his ability to mount a serious title challenge.

what goes around comes around.

... it was wet on that corner and the flags weren't out. He wasn't the only rider to crash there, so I think it's hard to use that as an example of him losing a championship, that was just a very unfortunate incident.

I wasn't meaning to detract from him, like it was necessarily his fault. I was just pointing out that he's been down and injured enough times to know what it's like. It's not like he's a 13 year old on his first bike - bouncing off trees and getting back up blissfully unaware of the dangers.

C, oops, let me try that again....
What I meant was,
Oh, Casey can ride for MM! One week to prepare him is good enough for a fun ride on the Repsol Honda team and get them some points no? #1 Stoner is not fighting for the championship so why not give him a little payback for being such an awesome test rider? :) Come on HRC!!! Whether or not he turns out to be competitive at Jerez, let him ride for good times sake. It's win-win for us all in the Two-Wheeled world!
#wishfulthinking #27atjerez

...whether you're a 93 fan or not, don't write him off just yet. 99 came close against 93 when his first half of the season was crap. Same with 46 just losing out to 69...the season is long and we have just begun.
-How quickly people forget and how quickly and easily people write off these riders :/
Stop trying to predict the future and allow 2015 to unfold. So far, we have been treated to several protagonists who have given us great and unpredictable racing wouldn't you agree?

I always think that luck plays a big part in the championship and until this season Marc's luck has been incredible. It always used to be Vale who was the lucky one. She seems to be smiling on the old guy again.

Some athletes in the past have cut off troublesome fingers. Marquez is aggressive enough that me thinks he may feel the evolutionarily irrelevant pinkie can be put in a jar. Would not save this season, but if the joint was affected and he has ratchet-like movement of the finger in the future, he may opt to do this. He'll still get the women. Chicks love scars.

The little finger is actually quite important for grip strength. When rock climbing, I found that my outside three fingers normally provided better strength than my inside three.

When riders cut it off, they normally only remove one or two segments, and it's normally because they're damaged beyond repair.

The outer two fingers of the hand exist for grip strength, whilst the thumb and first 2 fingers are there for manual dexterity and manipulation of objects.
I contemplated having my left pinkie amputated due to arthritis having calcified and locked the proximal phalange (first joint) in the straight-ahead position. The surgeon was adamant that such a decision would severely reduce grip strength. So I opted for a replacement joint, which had been fantastic.

And any suggestion that because John Hopkins did it, it must be OK.......well that's just logically unsound... :-)

There's no doubt that he will ride. It just a question of how much it will affect him. Lorenzo rode with a broken collerbone at Assen. Marc will ride with a broken hand. He'll adjust and get some points. Now. Bring win 3 for 'ol 46

He told the doctors to cut the damn finger cause he got a race to win in the afternoon. Speaking about short memory!

Troy crashed in race one at Phillip Island. Damn near lost the finger in that accident. It was under the medical advice that he wasn't going to save the finger anyhow. Hardly the same as Marc who's very young in his career and almost certain to win more championships vs Baylis. Who was at the end of his peak and at his home round with doctors advice that he wasn't going to be able to use it anyhow.

Lorenzo missed Phillip Island a few years back when he ceased at swan and lost the end of his ring finger.

We'll see in a week. But I feel Marc will race. Just how well he adapts is the question. And if he can't. Theres always next year. He's young enough to miss a few races. Finish 2nd or 3rd in the standings and come back stronger next year.

To suggest that anyone would amputate a part of their body for a title or in this case. One race. Is obserd. He has plenty of title left in him. I imagine that he'd want to keep the finger.

In the USA, there was a journeyman privateer named Dale Quarterly. He crashed at Laguna on Saturday, had his pinky cut off, and raced on Sunday. He needed the purse money and points. This was back in the 80's (K Roberts was in the race IIRC). He went on to race into the '00s, winning an AMA superbike race along the way. He later went into NASCAR. As he used to say, 'stick and ball sports? I dont even know the rules'. My point, there are plenty of racers that have done it. Not such a radical idea. Dale was endurance teammate to Randy Renfro. Randy ground his thumb off at Willow, and had his big toe sewed onto his hand. Now that was radical.

If Marquez cannot race at Jerez, HRC needs to pull out all the stops to stop Rossi from getting a bigger advantage in the championship.

Im still predicting Marquez races. But, getting Casey ready in the Aoyama slot right away is clearly a smart move.

Casey sounds thirsty. And a chance to get in Rossi's head could prove quite the quencher. Could he be up to speed that fast? It is Jerez, it's been on the calendar for about forever. Time to go watch Jerez 2010, 2011, 2012 and do some research.

I will humour you. Let's try and look at this realistically. Could he be up to speed so fast? I think it's unlikely being off a bike for over 2 years and with his test times being 2 seconds off the pace, that he could up it to beat the leaders in his first try.
The sport evolves, Marquez has moved the goal posts once more and so far, it appears that only Rossi has adapted and gone with him (for now). It is a lot of unfair expectation to think Stoner would/could be there at the front immediately - because it would have to be immediate!

With Marc injured, we should probably have to say he is less likely to win the race than usual. If Casey comes in and miraculously finishes ahead of Vale, Jorge, Dovi and Iannone... He will actually also be taking points OFF of Marc. What if he comes back and finishes 4th and Marc is struggling with pain back in 6th? Who is the beneficiary?

I don't think there is much of a logical reason for Stoner to race alongside Marc in this instance. If Marc is not there, then yes, why not get Stoner on the bike, pick up some points for HRC. When it was only Dani out, it was a totally different dynamic because Marc probably wouldn't have been disrupted by Casey.

This is only testing the idea that if MM for some reason cannot race. With a Valentino win it puts him 55 pts ahead of Marquez with only more tracks that Valentino has a strong track record on.

2. If there is any one rider who can get up to speed with a decent setup it was Casey. Even Valentino cannot compare, and has mentioned before, that Casey was a rare rider who could go out and immediately set a fast lap.

Believe me, I've ruled Casey out for the longest time, and thought for sure he was done for good with GP. For sure. Until the tweets. Even at first I thought for sure it had to be Casey's decision not to race, that HRC was just putting up the fake front saying they decided not to give Casey the ride to deflect all bad pr damage that could go against a clearly retired champion. Heck he races RC cars now for fun. But it seems like he has an itch to scratch.

3. I'm still betting all odds on Marquez racing. If Jorge raced with a fixed collarbone over the weekend, MM will race with a repaired finger, on painkillers if need be. He may not challenge for the win, but He'll take solace in getting a top 5 and staying within 2 races of Valentino. MM cannot let Valentino get that far ahead. Because Vale will podium for the rest of the season with this kind of confidence.

I don't think I've ever witnessed such fanboy nonsense. If Casey Stoner were to race in Jerez next week he would be very lucky to get a top 12 finish. Let alone come anywhere near Valentino Rossi.

Use of the term 'fanboy' is derogatory and usually intended to be insulting. Just because another poster see's things differently to you is not reason for you to use such language.
Try to keep this site grown up.

i see what you're saying, but assuming Marquez and Pedrosa were out a top 5 is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Maybe he couldn't keep up with Lorenzo, Rossi, and Dovi. Maybe he'd have a tough time with Crutchlow and Iannone, but this is a track Casey has a lot of experience at and won there on a 1000cc Honda not but 3 years ago. Call me a fanboy but after 4 practice sessions who's to say Casey wouldn't be right back up to speed fighting for the victory?

He possibly would still have the talent to make 'best-of-the-rest' and try for 10th.

0 x Fact-Honda, 2 x Sat-Honda, 2 x Fact-Yamaha, 2 x Sat-Yamaha, 2 x Fact-Ducati, 2 x Fact-Suzuki... the rest.

I don't know if Marc Marquez will ride at Jerez or not. I hope he will. There is no fun is Casey Stoner subbing for Marquez. He should be on Pedrosa's bike with Marquez on his own. Now that would be fun. A resurgent Rossi, never give up Lorenzo, and win at all costs Marquez with Stoner on the track. That would be something worth watching. Ideally even Pedrosa should be there with another factory bike given to Stoner. But I know I am dreaming. I am waking up now.

... so we don't have to have this discussion for another month!

I think we will see Marc race in Jerez, damage limitation. I think Aoyama will be on the grid too because he is testing there the day after the race anyway I believe. I don't think they will take any chances with Dani at all.

Honda have said they don't want the retired Aussie. What have they to gain aside from maybe entrant points if he qualifies ?

I think the top five will be too tuff for CS anyway.

I have no doubt MM will ride,he wants the points. Two Yams,two Ducs and then MM at the very least ??? (maybe even better than that?)

The first dry win with the GP15 just got a whole lot more likely.

And even more: Dovi might just find himself to be Rossi's main contender for the WC this year.

Dani lost too many points. Jorge is still struggling to find his speed. And Marc needs to do some catching up.

But we're just three races in. The season is long, indeed. Any news on Dani racing?

Stop wetting your pants just now, guys!

I doubt he will not race in Jerez or that he will lose too much speed. Maybe this is Honda's way of playing mind games?!
Get a little into Rossi's head and maybe disturb his focus.

I guess we'll all find out in Jerez.

What do you guys think?

I'm not saying he broke his hand to play mind games and I'm not saying his injury isn't serious...

In Saturday's qualifying session in Valencia 2007 Rossi suffered three fractures in his right hand. It's the one he uses to control the throttle. He still raced on Sunday...

Marquez broke his left pinky and with the seemless gearbox he only uses the clutch to start the race.
So... I hope you can see my skepticism here, when they say "there is a chance he might race".

I think there is a really big chance he will race.

And this could just be a way Honda's trying to place some doubt or disturb Rossi's rhythm.

Agreed, the picture doesn't fit the words. I'm entertaining the possibility that "his participation in the Spanish Grand Prix has not been ruled out" is HRC code for his whole hand is broken.

IIRC didn't Rossi race last year with a broken finger after his crash in Aragon (which may or may not have been his finger getting run over in a ranch race) and kept it relatively quiet?

According to MotoGP.com

Also writing his season of, thinking Stoner return and take points from Rossi, and assuming MM will race anyway... All p pie in the sky

Thank you David for going the extra mile to highlight why this break for Marc is particularly difficult and providing facts to back it up.

As always, this is why we come here, it's not just creating a headline for hits, we get REAL information. Much appreciated!

Based on what we've seen so far Dovizioso is the main challenger right now and maybe the favorite. Marquez was quick in Austin, but he was off the pace in Qatar, and Argentina he was 2nd at best and possibly 3rd. The Ducati has a big HP advantage and appears to handle; if Dovizioso can ride around collecting 2nd place finishes and snag an odd win...I think Lorenzo will get his head on at some point, maybe this weekend.

One way or the other we're early in the game. I do think that Marquez is concerned and may very well have been over-training. Rossi has been considerably faster in two of three races and that has to get in your head, especially when you consider in the 2nd half of last year Lorenzo also was intruding on Marquez's dominance.

I'm guessing Marquez will race at Jerez because he seems a little manic. It's a long championship and a long career so he should sit - but he's 22 and down 30 points so...

is he gonna ride?

Sure he is, you only have to look at how Lorenzo rode races. broken ankles and triple broken collarbone.!

better ask whats up with him if he isnt riding.....

Just my opinion, but I think he's gonna race and do well---he's not going to let a little finger stop him---he's young and strong and full of piss and vinegar---it will take more than a broke little finger to stop him…
As for Rossi---he will do his best to capitalize on the situation---gonna be good...

Has anyone thought about how Crutchlow will figure into this? I recall his comments on the Argentina race as a marketing pitch to Honda to consider him for "next man up" with the factory (even as an LCR badged rider).

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2015/04/22/crutchlow-we-worked-so-hard-fo…

Cal Crutchlow:
“We are so pleased to get the podium, when I get to come up here it’s usually because you’re going fast! The CWM LCR Honda Team did a great job, we worked so hard for the third spot. The plan was always to try and let Marc go at the start, hold the other guys up and then try to push at the end. I had a bad middle of the race though and the bike locked up a couple of times and I made a few mistakes, but I tried my best to hold onto some grip for the end, and it seemed to pay off! We would have been happy with fourth place, because that’s where we started. We got lucky though because Marc crashed, but ultimately we battled for it, so we deserve it.”

This plan may not be an option at Jerez. With the injuries to MM93 and DP26, Crutchlow stands to be Honda's best hope for a podium at Jerez. Marc has a history of coming back from injury to ride at a podium level and Honda will be keen to protect their golden boy's championship hopes. However, the question is whether or not Cal will remain that team player looking at the situation and saying, "Yeah, I'll be sure to drop from a podium position and get behind Marc so he can score as many points as possible towards the championship." or, would he look at the situation and say, "If we can beat Dovi and Rossi, we can help Marc's championship hopes and our own stock as a top rider." This is also known as the win it or bin it plan.

Option B allows him to elevate his own status as a viable Dani replacement (should DP26 not be able to continue his career) and he will either take points from Marc's rivals or hand Marc some points towards his championship hopes by removing himself from in front of him ... the hard way. Honda would definitely prefer Option A as the safer plan but Cal has never afraid to take chances.

Fun to think of the wildcard that is Cal anyway, however unrealistic the conjecture might be. lol

I don't believe that there is a requirement to replace a rider who misses one round?
If MM is not declared fit on Thursday I think his bike will remain parked up.

I think hrc are being a bit coy and only reporting on what can't be covered up, that Marquez received treatment for a broken bone in his left hand. Who is to say there are not other significant injuries to the hand/ wrist, arm as well? Notice strains, sprains abrasions etc are rarely mentioned.

His pinky is taped to his next finger which makes perfect sense considering. But the heavy bandaging around his wrist and thumb and the elbow in a sling suggests a bit more....perhaps a sprained wrist or dislocated thumb. Had there been any other news on this? No matter, he is young, he will heal fast.

Guys the cast is to stabilise the wrist and allow flexion(bending motion) at the interphalangeal (joints between the finger segments). So doesnt necessarily mean wrist is injured.This is the standard treatment of displaced fractures of the proximal segment of the fingers. However results are better if the splint between the fingers is applied for atleast 4 weeks...having said that, despite all this speculation, we would only know on the race weekend if MM93 will ride or not.Patience is a virtue.. At the moment its 50-50 in my humble opinion.

Firstly, the kid is tough as nails. Mugello 2013 is the first example that comes to mind. Jerez is a short track and only has 5 left hand corners and only 1 left with hard braking. Painkillers and his steely determination to prove he is still the best especially after Argentina. I wouldn't write Marquez off for the win

OK so with 15 races left, if we make an assumption that 1-2 will be shared between MM and VR for the rest of the season, if MM wins even 10 of them and VR manages to win the rest 5, VR will still finish as the champion. How cool is that. Only if MotoGP was predictable... :P

And this injury will only likely increase the current points gap between them, though am pretty confident that MM will jump onto the bike cometh the weekend, he might decide to miss/cut shorten a practice or two.

....is Ducati ready to win a dry race?? I am sure both Andeas are (wasn't that the original name of the airport/airfield circuit at Jurby in the IOM? Anyway, I digress...), BUT are Ducati ready to give up their concessions before Gigi's transformations and various development cycles are complete?

This may sound like the ravings of a madman to an intelligent audience but I remember being at Monza in the closing stages of the Baylisstic reign, he was well clear in (I think) race 1 and on for the win. If that Ducati were to win that day WSBK rules that year meant a host of changes to the weight and performance of the Ducatis. Troy retired with an unspecified fault, a fault that was never discovered despite many journalistic probes over the coming weeks. The outcome was never fully explained but the rule threshold was never breached, Ducatis were never disadvantaged and Troy- deservedly- won the title.

All I am saying is, after angering the Japanese with the last minute change of category last year so they could continue to develop the GP15, is the process fully fledged or have they still got to avoid a win to ensure they can compete when everything opens up and the playing field is levelled in 2016?

this season is the soft tire. They only lose this by winning three dry races. And I'm guessing that if you were to ask Ducati, they'd happily give up the boost in qualifying in exchange for the ability to run the hard rubber in the race. They'd still keep the 12 engines, still keep the unlimited testing/development, and they'd gain a better race tire at more abrasive tracks. It's a win/win to, well, win.

No, I'm pretty sure Ducati want to win. Badly.

No more Stoner prognostications.
If it happens, let's talk about it then, otherwise can we make the a Casey-Free-Zone for the time being.

I much admire him, but seriously......????????