An eating disorder, a gift from Reyes and an alliance with Nadal's doctor: Marc Márquez's harshest winter

• Recovery Marc Márquez improves his diplopia and gets back on a motorcycle

• Injury The long tunnel of Marc Márquez: end to the season after relapsing from an old eye injury

It was a gift from Reyes, the one he had asked for with more enthusiasm.

Last New Year's Eve,

still saw double.

A few days later, his eyes sharpened.

The doctors, with the ophthalmologist

from the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona in charge, had assured him that it could happen, his monocular diplopia could suddenly disappear, but he could also end up in the operating room and even away from the circuits forever.

In the end, everything went well.

More than good.

And on January 13, Márquez got back on a motorcycle with the sole objective of reaching the start of the MotoGP World Championship this Sunday in Qatar (4:00 p.m., DAZN).

The last championship had ended that way, with his resignation from the last race due to an accident doing motocross with his friend

, enduro world champion.

But having overcome his eye problem, the annoyance that has accompanied him for almost two years returned: the right humerus.

Three operations, an infection and countless treatments later, his radial nerve is still swollen, painful and threatens his career.

Whether he will be able to overcome the seven titles of

or the eight of

is only in doubt because of that injury and that is why this season he has given his most precious asset to his recovery, the tranquility of his town, Cervera, 50 kilometers from Lleida.

Márquez acknowledges that at the end of last year so many physical problems caused him anguish, exhaustion, lack of control over eating and weight loss and that he needed another approach to regain joy.

Before, the idea was that, once the bone had healed, everything else would return to its place between strengthening exercises, check-ups with Dr.

at the Ruber Internacional Hospital in Madrid, and daily massages at the hands of his usual physiotherapist,

.

Now the course is another.

This winter, the six-time MotoGP champion left the house that had been built four steps from the family home in Lleida to settle in Madrid.

Change of address

Encouraged by Dr. Antuña himself, Márquez contacted Dr.

Rafa Nadal

's personal physician.

and the Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET), and his first diagnosis was so revealing that the rider decided to drop everything and settle as close as possible to him and his Mapfre Tennis Medicine Clinic.

There they have created a personalized team with a physical trainer and a physiotherapist who will attend to him whenever he is not traveling around the world.

And that is why Márquez now lives near there in a house on the outskirts of the capital where he tries to maintain the same lifestyle that he had in the Lleida countryside: a lot of gym, a lot of mountain biking, a lot of motocross and little partying.

They comment on his team that, since he learned of his move, he has received multiple invitations, but that his thing continues to be talks with the family.

And with its mechanics.

Because when he returned from his injury, Márquez found himself a completely new Honda and his obsession began to be to make it his own, to adapt it to his style.

In recent seasons, also due to the pain of its leader, the Japanese brand had chained a historical losing streak of 21 races without winning and a change was needed.

As a whole, they assure that from a small and rearing motorcycle, inherited from the days of

, it has gone on to a larger and quieter machine, although that clashes with the tastes of the brand's benchmark.

Apparently, they have already found a middle ground.

Or at least they are on it.

Márquez was able to participate in the pre-season tests in Malaysia and Indonesia and in a few days he significantly improved his times.

At no time was he among the best - as his partner

did - but he hardly cared.

With a stronger Honda, he may be able to challenge the Ducati riders and the last champion,

, the favorite this year despite the doubts about the Yamaha.

The man who dominated the golden age of MotoGP, with Valentino Rossi,

and Dani Pedrosa on the track, wants to defeat the new generation.

The coldest winter has already passed, if Márquez is healthy he will aspire to everything again.

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• Marc Márquez

Whispers of SportThe new Marc Márquez: more strategic, with fewer falls, living in Madrid and isolated from social networks

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