MotoGP champion Martin also out of Argentina GP due to injury

Reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin has been ruled out of next month’s Argentina Grand Prix after breaking his hand in a training accident.

MotoGP doctor Angel Charte revealed on Thursday that Martin’s recovery from a left hand fracture has been “slow” and he will sit out the Argentina GP on 14-16 March, having already been forced to skip this weekend’s season-opener in Thailand.

This means that Spaniard will have to wait until at the least the third round of the season, the US GP at Austin on 30 March, to make his race debut with Aprilia.

“Martin is in high spirits. As always, he is a very vital man,” Charte told TV broadcaster Dazn. “What worries us most is that the scaphoid consolidates perfectly. In principle, both Dr Xavier Mir and I spoke with him, and for the moment he won’t be in Thailand for sure, and neither will he be in Argentina.

“We will see what happens in Austin. It’s an issue that we have to look at little by little. The recovery is not fast, it’s a slow recovery, because if it doesn’t heal well and doesn’t have a good fracture callus, it can have collateral effects in the medium and long term. We’ll probably do a test before going to Texas and we’ll see what’s what.”

Martin received a double whammy of injuries while preparing for the new season with Aprilia this month.

The former Pramac Ducati rider first suffered fractures to his right hand and left foot in a highside crash on the opening day of testing in Malaysia on 5 February.

He immediately returned to Barcelona to undergo surgery on the right hand, while his left foot didn’t require an operation, and was due to make a full recovery in time for the start of the new season.

However, as he was training on a supermoto bike in Spain on Monday prior to flying to Thailand, he broke his left hand in an incident.

Aprilia revealed that he suffered complex fracture of the radius, some carpal bones on the left side and an ipsilateral calcaneal fracture in the impact, and underwent surgery on Tuesday.

This immediately ruled him out of the Buriram race this weekend, with news now following he is also out of the next race in Argentina.

Maritn’s participation in the US GP is also subject to him passing the required fitness tests.