Six-time MotoGP World Champion has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship season and an important post-season test later this month due to diplopia, which is also known as double vision. But this isn’t the first time that Marquez has dealt with this career-threatening condition.
On October 30, 2021, Marquez crashed while training on an off-road bike in Spain. He suffered a concussion, which ruled him out of the Algarve Grand Prix November 5-7 at Algarve International Circuit, in Portugal.
Two days after that event, Marquez’s Repsol Honda team announced that he would miss the season finale November 12-14 at Valencia and the IRTA test November 18-19 at Jerez due to vision problems.
A press release issued by the team on November 9 quoted ophthalmologist Dr. Sanchez Dalmau as saying, “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.”
According to the Harvard Medical School, diplopia is double vision, and in this case, it is being caused by the paralyzed nerve preventing a muscle from rotating Marquez’s right eyeball properly.
The crazy thing is Marquez has suffered this exact same injury before.
On October 21, 2011, Marquez crashed his CatalunyaCaixa Repsol Suter when he hit a wet patch during Moto2 Free Practice One at Sepang. The then-18-year-old Spaniard paralyzed the same nerve, hindering the same muscle, caused double vision for more than three months. In an interview in 2020, Marquez said at the time he feared his career might be over.
In January 2012, Marquez had surgery to repair the nerve damage, recovered fully, and went on to win the 2012 Moto2 World Championship.
Ironic Note: When Marquez was knocked out of the 2011 Moto2 World Championship he was second in the standings, three points behind Stefan Bradl. Bradl went on to win the 2011 Moto2 World Championship and is currently filling in for Marquez while he is out.