Honda's Marquez to have post-2018 MotoGP season shoulder surgery

Marquez dislocated his left shoulder while celebrating his fifth MotoGP title on the in-lap of the Motegi race last weekend, and later revealed that it had also happened several times during training in 2018.

He called it his "weak point" of the season, but expects it to be "perfect" and fully recovered just a few months after the operation.

"My brother [Moto2 rider Alex] already had this operation, they put like a limit in the shoulder because this is something that when it goes out many times, the bone gets smaller and smaller and then it is easier for it to go out," Marquez said.

"They just try to increase this bone by a blade, or a bolt, I don't know, and then [it] will be better. [It] takes one month and a half to be 100%. For that reason, I need to wait until December.

"I will do it [in the] first week of December and to be 100% again on the bike, [it will be the] middle of January.

"Maybe [the shoulder] was my weak point of the season. During the season, it dislocated many times during training."

Honda endured a difficult opening day at Phillip Island with Marquez, Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow all crashing, with the British rider breaking his ankle.

Crutchlow crashed at Turn 1 during FP2, and Marquez said that after seeing his stablemate fall he decided to be more careful there as he had also had a couple of moments.

"I saw, I was far away, but somebody had the big crash in Turn 1 and then I realised when I arrived [back] in the box that [it] was Cal," explained Marquez, whose fall in FP1 was at the MG corner.

"When I saw that [it] was Cal, I slowed down there because I had some moments, too.

"Dani crashed there this morning too so [it] is one of our weak points. We arrive there and, on the bike, I don't understand the front.

"But we did a change this afternoon and I started to understand [it] in a better way. You need to be patient, this is a very special circuit - sometimes the base setup is not working here.

"Now [it] is time to understand and on Sunday we will see, but our target is try to be faster and faster, and be on the podium.

"But [it] is true that our base pace setup during all the season, here, [it] looks like [it is] not working in a good way."