Marc Marquez’s arms have been reduced to ‘skin and bones’ due to a shoulder injury, says Neil Hodgson.
Marquez He finished seventh in his return at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday and missed the main races at Le Mans and Barcelona all weekend.
The world champion was involved in an extended battle with KTM’s Pedro Acosta for fourth, but fell away in the second half of the race and eventually lost out to Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.
What did you make of Marc Marquez’s performance at Mugello?
The defending champion finished seventh on his return
Marc Marquez needs to find strength, says Neil Hodgson.
Marquez first injured his shoulder at the Indonesian GP last fall, which required surgery. However, one of the screws was misaligned, weakening it significantly early in the season.
After the problem was discovered, Marquez decided to do another operation. After a broken metatarsal in the Le Mans Sprint, he had to undergo a procedure on his leg.
Marquez is still getting fit so he can be satisfied with his performance at Mugello. He qualified an impressive fourth and finished P5 in the sprint.
Which rider caught your eye at the Italian Grand Prix?
But Hodgson says the Spaniard will take time to rebuild the muscle he has lost due to his limited training. Its limitations are exposed to some degree over the full race distance through high-speed changes of direction.
“There’s no nerve in that arm, but no muscle,” Hodgson said. TNT Sports. “He lost a lot of muscle, probably because he couldn’t train.
“You can see he’s skin and bones. All that change of direction, it looks beautiful on TV, but you have to develop the muscle in this part of the track.”
Marquez heads to Balaton Park eighth in the championship next weekend. Marco Bezecic’s victory took him 102 off the rankings.
Receive competition news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
