Mat Oxley says there’s ‘something going on’ with Jorge Martin injury recovery that makes no sense

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Jorge Martin missed the majority of the 2025 MotoGP campaign as he put up one of the weakest title defences in history.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much the Spaniard could do about it, as he suffered multiple injuries in a year that hit his confidence. It wasn’t what he or Aprilia had dreamed of.

With a full winter of preparation under his belt, Martin will be hoping that he can be close to teammate Marco Bezzecchi, who has won multiple races over the last 12 months.

If his drop-off continues, he might find himself forced to scour the MotoGP rider market for a new opportunity beyond the end of 2026.

Despite rumoured interest in the summer, Honda have not ‘shut the door’ on Martin, and they could tempt him into a move in the future.

Martin isn’t worried about a new Aprilia contract yet and is fully focused on recovering from a daunting smash suffered at the Japanese Grand Prix, which sidelined him for longer than expected.

READ MORE: Jorge Martin shares how he really feels about Aprilia after trying to break his contract for 2026

Mat Oxley thinks there is ‘something going on’ with Jorge Martin’s collarbone injury

Martin wanted to go home at the Valencia test, and all he could think about was getting through the ordeal in one piece. At all costs, he didn’t want to hurt himself.

That’s not a very fast way to be riding a 1000cc motorcycle. Martin ‘understood’ that Aprilia was the right place for him to be, and that should help him in 2026.

After watching him at the last race of the season in Valencia, journalist Mat Oxley believes there is more than meets the eye with Martin’s recovery from a collarbone break at Motegi.

“So there’s something going on there,” he said on the Oxley Bom Podcast. “Valencia, you know, he missed what, six weeks or something between Japan and Valencia, 6-7 weeks 6-7 weeks and he still wasn’t right.

“That was a collarbone. A normal collarbone doesn’t take 6-7 weeks to fix. Even if you let it fix normally without pinning it, so there’s obviously something going on there.

“This is another reason why there’s something up with that shoulder, collarbone injury. He said he couldn’t afford to crash again,” Oxley continued.

“Whenever he felt himself pushing to the limit and wanting to take risks and stuff, he was like having to say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop. Go back in the garage,’ because he must not crash. Without a doubt, there’s something there.”

READ MORE: Jorge Martin’s penalty for the Valencia Grand Prix is great news for Aprilia, here’s why

Can Jorge Martin return to the same level of form in 2026?

MotoGP fans urged Martin to ‘call it a season’ before coming back exclusively for the last race of the campaign.

Re-injuring himself could have set him back months or threatened his MotoGP career altogether. He can’t afford that.

Fortunately, he got through the weekend unscathed, but was forced to pull out midway through the Grand Prix because he was tired.

Angel Charte had ‘doubts’ about Martin’s return and whether he had healed properly. His hesitance to push hard speaks a lot about his state.