Marco Bezzecchi
Team manager Davide Tardozzi says doctors have told Ducati that Marc Marquez will “never” return to full fitness and that some of his injury issues will “remain forever”.
Tardozzi is confident that Marquez still has more to come following his latest return after the shoulder injury that plagued the start of his 2026 season. But the Marquez that Ducati enjoy today will never be the same as the version of the Spaniard that dominated whilst at Honda.
Marquez is currently embarking on yet another return from injury after undergoing the 10th surgery of his MotoGP career to date in May. The 33-year-old went under the knife to fix the nerve issue in his right shoulder that arose as a result of the injury he sustained last October.
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Davide Tardozzi admits that some of Marc Marquez’s injury issues will ‘remain forever’
A first-lap crash with Marco Bezzecchi in last year’s Indonesian Grand Prix put Marquez in an unfortunate spiral, as it bent two screws in his shoulder from his Latarjet surgery from 2019. It was not until Marquez returned from the first surgery on his shoulder that the issue arose.
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A huge highside in the Le Mans Sprint also saw Marquez require surgery on his foot, which he used to have his shoulder problem fixed. Tardozzi now believes that Marquez’s shoulder is in the best condition that it could be at this time, but he still needs to regain muscle in it.
Doctors have told Ducati that Marquez will never get back to full fitness, though, especially not to the extent he enjoyed before sustaining his career-threatening arm injury at Jerez in 2020. Marquez’s highside at Jerez destroyed his right arm, and it ruined his next four years.
Tardozzi told Sky Sports Italy straight after practice at the 2026 Czech Grand Prix on Friday at Brno: “I reckon the operation has sorted out the problems he had at the start of the season, which were definitely holding him back at a certain point.
“Not because he lacked strength, but mainly because of a lack of sensation in his right arm. It has to be said that, unfortunately, some issues will remain forever. So, he’ll still need to improve a bit and build up his muscle mass. This will happen over the next two months.
“In my view, based on what the doctors have told us, Marc will never return to the form he was in before 2020. But he’ll certainly be reasonably fit again.”
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Marquez knows he faces physical limitations with his right arm following his recent return to action after undergoing another operation on his shoulder. The bent screws pressing against a nerve in the 33-year-old’s shoulder ensured he could not ride naturally earlier this season.
But Marquez keeps telling his inner circle that he wants to keep racing whenever they put it to the seven-time MotoGP champion that it might be time to retire after having injury after injury. There is a school of thought that another big injury may see Marquez retire, though.
The Cervera native has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of his crash at Jerez to return to MotoGP’s summit with his 2025 title for Ducati, only to suffer another major injury. So, the idea that one more big injury could push Marquez to retire does not seem that far-fetched.
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