After his vision discomfort on the flight home, Honda said in a statement: “[Márquez] had an emergency visit to the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona with his trusted ophthalmologist, Dr. Sánchez Dalmau, who after an examination confirmed a relapse in the diplopia that the rider suffered last November.
“[On Tuesday morning], the Spanish rider visited his medical team, led by Dr. Samuel Antuña, at the Ruber Internacional Hospital in Madrid, where Márquez underwent a general medical check-up to evaluate all the bruises caused by the crash and a brain MRI. This has reconfirmed that he did not suffer any other injuries.”
While racing in Moto2, Márquez suffered a serious eye injury to his right eyeball in a 2011 crash at Malaysia, putting his career into serious jeopardy. The Honda rider had damaged his trochlear nerve, which in turn caused paralysis of the superior oblique muscle – which which helps to both stabilise and rotate the eye.
The same problem recurred last year after a motocross training accident, which forced him to miss the final two races of the season and the following test. That followed the extensive rehabilitation needed after fracturing his right arm in the 2020 season-opener in Jerez.
The Spaniard missed the rest of that year’s races, and the opening two of 2021, going on to ride with a weakened arm.