Lorenzo and Marquez downplay injuries

Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez are both walking wounded in Japan but both rider have said that they expect to be able to compete freely at Motegi.

Last week both riders suffered injuries with title contender Lorenzo fell while training and damaged his left shoulder but speaking at the pre race press conference the Spaniard said:

“I had a crash last Saturday so I was quite worried,” because I thought it could be much worse,” said Lorenzo. “When I arrived into the hospital, before they X-ray, they were thinking that maybe I might need an operation. But luckily after we made the X-ray there was no need for an operation, so I was less worried.

“I feel a little bit of pain. Not so much pain, but not very comfortable when I move the shoulder. But luckily it has improved so much. Every day I felt a big improvement. We’ve done everything we can to accelerate the process of recovery. Today I feel very good, I think tomorrow I will be better and by Sunday better again. Maybe I will be close to 100%.” 

Marquez fractured the fifth metacarpal of his left hand in a mountain bike accident last week and will use a modified handlebar to try and take as much weight as possible from the fracture.

“My injury is not bad. It’s a little bit different to Jorge because the bone is broken but I feel okay,” said Marquez. “We will see tomorrow how it is on the bike, especially the braking points where we are pushing a lot. We intend to use a special modified handlebar. Otherwise I feel well, I feel ready and we will try to do our best this weekend.”