The defending MotoGP champion Marc Marquez saw his tough season take a harsher twist on Sunday, receiving successful double surgery in Madrid after a high-impact crash in the French Grand Prix sprint at Le Mans.

The Spanish rider endured a scary highside incident on Saturday when he lost grip on his Ducati, sending both himself and the machine airborne in one of the weekend's most shocking moments.

Marquez broke the fifth metatarsal in his right foot and was promptly sidelined from Sunday's feature race.

Ducati announced that doctors effectively secured the foot fracture prior to performing a planned operation on his right shoulder, which the crash had disrupted in terms of recovery timeline.

The shoulder problem dated back to last year's Indonesian Grand Prix, where he worsened a prior injury that plagued him all season. Surgeons extracted two screws and a shifted bone piece from his 2019 Latarjet procedure, as it was pressing on the radial nerve.

The 33-year-old rider confessed that the issue had subtly eroded his performance and self-assurance for months.

"I knew something was off," Marquez shared with DAZN. "The screw shifted and pressed the radial nerve. That led to errors, lack of consistency, and surprise falls."

The incident served as a stark alert to the vulnerability of Marquez's return to form.

After awkwardly placing his right foot on the circuit just before the spill, the eight-time champion was hurled from the bike as his Ducati tumbled across the gravel nearby.

Afterward, he was spotted limping on one leg en route to the medical facility.

Earlier that Saturday, though, glimpses of the classic Marquez shone through.

He thrilled the Le Mans crowd by breaking the lap record in qualifying to claim a front-row grid spot, sparking optimism that his dominant MotoGP pace was resurfacing.

Yet that optimism dimmed fast in the sprint race, where he dropped from second to seventh before the crash cut his run short.

This recent hurdle extends a difficult pattern for Marquez, who has grappled with injuries, erratic results, and waning belief since clashing with title foe Marco Bezzecchi at last year's Indonesian Grand Prix soon after clinching his latest crown.

He sat out the last four rounds of the 2025 campaign and has yet to fully gel with the Ducati this year, despite occasional sparks, without a podium to show.

"It's not the others speeding up," Marquez noted ahead of the French GP. "I'm the one lagging."

Now down to seventh in the points table, the Spaniard trails leader Bezzecchi by 71 points while Ducati's championship hopes fade further.

Marquez will skip next weekend's Catalan Grand Prix and aims to comeback at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello later this month, a key event on Ducati turf.