Marc Marquez ruled out of Valencia MotoGP round

Marc Marquez’s MotoGP season is over after he was ruled out of this weekend’s Valencia Grand Prix and the Jerez test which follows due to ongoing vision problems.

The six-time premier class champion missed last weekend’s Algarve Grand Prix after a training crash left him with concussion.

Despite resting at home for a week now, he continued to feel unwell and suffer from vision problems.

Yesterday (Monday, local time), he was visited by ophthalmologist Dr Sánchez Dalmau at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, who examined him.

Tests picked up a new episode of diplopia, otherwise known as double vision, and he will not ride a MotoGP bike again this year.

“The examination carried out on Marc Marquez today after the accident that occurred has confirmed that the rider has diplopia and has revealed a paralysis of the fourth right nerve with involvement of the right superior oblique muscle,” said Dr Dalmau.

“A conservative treatment with periodic updates has been chosen to follow with the clinical evolution.

“This fourth right nerve is the one that was already injured in 2011.”

Marquez suffered from vertical diplopia in 2011 after a crash in a Moto2 session at Sepang left him with paralysis of that same muscle due to trauma to the fourth right cranial nerve.

The latest injury means he will have missed a total of four rounds by season’s end, having sat out the first two as he continued to recover from the bad arm facture which he suffered in Jerez last year.

Nevertheless, he is currently sixth in the standings, edging Brad Binder on a countback, and cannot finish any worse than seventh, meaning he will be the top Honda rider for 2021.

Marquez has scored three wins this year, including two in what have ended up being his last two starts of the campaign.

There is no word yet on a replacement but it is highly likely that Honda test rider Stefan Bradl will fill in again, given he has done so on the other three occasions.

Practice at Valencia begins on Friday, while the Jerez post-season test takes place on November 18-19.