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Marc Marquez could be given medical clearance to ride at MotoGP’s pre-season tests if he can get through a track day at a grand prix circuit.
The six-time premier class champion missed the last two rounds of 2021 and the post-season test after a training crash which left him suffering double vision.
It turned out that he had injured the same nerve then as he had in a Moto2 spill in 2011, an incident which led to surgery early in the following year.
Marquez was given the green light to continue physical training after incurring his latest injury just before Christmas, with a recent check-up paving the way for him to ride a motorcycle again earlier this week.
He is now close to a MotoGP comeback, opening the door to ride in the first Official Test of the year at Malaysia’s Sepang on February 5-6.
To do so, the 28-year-old will need to prove himself at a grand prix circuit on either a Honda superbike or the RC213V-S which he rode last year ahead of his return from a broken arm.
Encouraging also is that he appears to have avoided surgery this time around.
“If I’m riding a bike, it means I have a perfect vision and it looks like we don’t need surgery,” explained Marquez.
“But at the moment, I want to follow the advice of doctor. He wants to see in a GP circuit riding with high speed alone.
“I mean, doing a one-day test with a lot of laps. When I get tired, if I have some problems or not… My doctor wants to evaluate all these things before allowing me to be at the Malaysian test.
“So, first of all, to confirm I’ll be in Malaysia, I want to try more days and I want to try on a GP circuit to see because I want to be 100 percent sure when I start the pre-season I will be fixed and ready to do a normal season.
“Now, all the Repsol team is trying to organise a test with a CBR1000 or the RCV.
“Since I got injured, my goal was try to be at the first test or the first race of the season.
“It looks like we’re heading in a good way but we need to try on a GP circuit with high speed.
“The vision is very serious, so I know I’ll follow the advice of the doctor.
“At the moment I feel really good. This is the most important.”
Marquez’s comments came as part of Honda Racing Corporation’s presentation of its 2022 motorsport activities.
Honda had initially advised that he would not be part of that press call so that he could focus on his ongoing recovery, then said he would indeed be involved after releasing footage of him riding a motocross bike again.
Marquez has been easing himself back into riding in recent weeks, initially on a bicycle, then on an offroad motorcycle.
“Especially last month started better,” he recounted.
“When I started to feel better one week ago, I started cycling with the road bicycle. Then with mountain bike cycling. The feeling was good. Was better.
“This week when I had the doctor’s check, he confirmed that feeling and allowed me to ride a bike.
“I chose a motocross bike. One, because it was the one I was using when I was injured, and [two] it’s really demanding.
“Some jumps, you need completely all the vision. The result was very positive.”
