Unlike broken bones, concussions are the “unseen injury” that is more easily ignored by professional motorcycle racers that simply do not want to miss an event.
We have observed numerous crashes in MotoGP resulting, at the very least, in minor concussions where the rider has been allowed to continue with practice sessions and races on the same weekend. The pressure on star riders to continue participating despite a minor concussion are apparently huge.
These circumstances heightened our interest in the following press release from HRC received earlier this week:
“This past Saturday Marc Marquez, while preparing for the Algarve Grand Prix with one of his standard off-road training sessions, suffered a fall that caused a slight head concussion. After a few days of rest at home and seeing that he was still unwell, today Marquez has been assessed by doctors in a medical check-up to evaluate his current status. As a precautionary measure, this coming weekend Marquez will not contest the Algarve Grand Prix.“
In light of what we have seen during race weekends, we are genuinely skeptical about the “slight” nature of the concussion that resulted in Marquez “after a few days of rest” still feeling “unwell”. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time a race team put “spin” on a concussion injury.
We wish Marquez well, of course, and applaud Honda’s decision to keep him on the sidelines this weekend. Marquez is a prolific crasher (take a look at this GPOne article that actually counts his crashes each year in MotoGP). We just wish MotoGP, and other motorcycle racing series, in general, would try a little harder to evaluate concussion injuries by applying a consistent protocol.
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