Marc Marquez has revealed the deep emotional toll his long recovery from injury took—not just on himself, but on those closest to him. In a joint interview with his brother Álex Marquez ahead of the British MotoGP, the eight-time world champion reflected on the period between 2020 and 2022, during which he struggled with severe pain following his right humerus fracture.
The crash at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix forced Marquez out for the rest of that season. Despite returning in 2021, an abnormal regrowth of the bone meant he was never at full strength. It wasn’t until mid-2022 that he opted for a fourth surgery to rotate the bone and realign it properly.
“[I was] angry to my people,” Marc admitted to TNT Sports. “I was angry to [Álex], I was answering in a not correct way. It’s not easy when you have a lot of pain inside your body… it’s like when you have a head pain—you are not the same person.”
Álex echoed the difficulty of that time, especially with the media constantly pressing him about Marc’s condition. “It was the first time I said, ‘I will not speak anymore about my brother,’” he said. “The difficult thing was in 2021 and 2022… he changed his character. He was like another person.”
The 2022 decision to undergo corrective surgery—re-breaking the humerus and rotating it 33 degrees—was a pivotal one. Marc’s brother was among the first to encourage it.
“I said, ‘It will be your decision, you will invest half-a-year of losing this championship, but you will win the rest of your life,’” Álex said.
Now leading the 2025 MotoGP standings, Marc Marquez has bounced back physically and mentally. But behind his dominance lies a story of suffering, vulnerability, and the importance of support from family.
