P112
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
T
he message didn't quite
come draped in tinsel or
with flashing multi-colored
LEDs but was about as plausible
as a flying reindeer. It read:
"Marc Marquez's post-operative
clinical situation has been
deemed 'satisfactory' by his
medical team in Madrid."
Perhaps this is too flippant.
"Satisfactory," in medical terms,
is a pretty flexible term. Trouble
is, Marc's upper right arm is also
pretty flexible. In places where it
was not supposed to be.
The upshot is no joking mat-
ter.
In the worst case, it may even
be career-ending. Certainly,
the return of the current world's
best at full strength for the start
of the next season is in grave
doubt, and with it, also Honda's
prospects of regaining the pre-
eminence he gave them, with all
but one championship from 2013
to 2019.
It shouldn't be like this. Or-
thopedic surgery, at least in the
common mind, is a matter of
sawbones carpentry. Straight-
forward, at least in concept. A
bone breaks, the surgeon slices
his way through the adjacent
muscle, drills a couple of pilot
holes, screws a titanium plate
nice and tight across the frac-
ture, sews it up again. And off
the patient goes, good as new.
That's usually how it works,
for a injuries like a broken col-
larbones. Who can forget Jorge
Lorenzo—still the only rider
to have beaten Marquez to a
premier-class championship—
snapping his at Assen in 2013?
He flew to what had already by
then become the racers' go-to
option, Dr. Xavier Mir's Barce-
lona clinic, got screwed together
overnight, and was back on his
Yamaha two days later, reeking
of surgical spirit and riding to
fifth place with a tear, a grimace
and the respect of all.
Doubtless Marc had this in
mind after his nasty prang at
Jerez in July at the belated round
one. Clobbered by his bike,
the upper bone in his right arm
snapped clean in two. He too
flew straight to Dr. Mir in Barce-
lona, had the carpentry, and was
Marc And His
Humerus
—No Laughin' Matter
