Martin feared latest injury might end his MotoGP career

Reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Martin has revealed he had feared his training injury ahead of the 2025 season could've been a career-ender - as he felt "my hand as never before".

Martin was working himself to fitness after a different injury that effectively wrote off the entirety of his pre-season programme, when he crashed while supermoto training - with heavy damage to his left heel, but more worryingly his left hand/arm (specifically the scaphoid and radius bones).

He is missing the first three rounds of his title defence season, but did at least make it to the paddock for the Circuit of the Americas weekend, in order to further embed himself with his new Aprilia team.

Speaking to media - whom Martin told that "I actually missed you! It seems difficult [to believe] but I missed you" - the 2024 champion recounted the training crash in detail.

"I highsided really-really fast. I was just exiting from one corner in fourth gear, for sure it's not a MotoGP but it's a supermoto that's already performing [at a high levle], and it was already straight when I touched a kerb, outside kerb, I don't know if [I touched] the paint or something.

"It was a really-really big crash. And then I broke again my foot, four bones in the foot, and the three new bones in the hand. Yeah, it was a bad one, really bad one."

He acknowledged the immediate aftermath of the crash was very taxing mentally.

"The first injury [during testing at Sepang] was for sure a strange crash, I broke three bones, but after seven-eight days I was again on the bike, so it was pretty fast. So on the mental side was nothing," he recalled.

"But that [second] one was really-really heavy. I was scared because I felt my hand as never before, was really-really bad, in a bad situation.

"Normally after the surgery you start to move a little bit or you start to feel - but I didn't. For two weeks I couldn't move the left hand. So, yeah, on the mental side was difficult, I was scared to maybe not ride - or something - again, because it was really in a bad situation.

"But after two weeks, three weeks I started to see the light. And I know in the long term it won't be a problem. But now for sure I don't feel at my best. So let's see when I ride how it is."

Martin said he still "struggles a lot" with the hand - "not to move, I can move, but I can't put any weight [on it] still".

"The head of the radius that was broken in three pieces. So... I don't know what was worse, the scaphoid or the radius. But both are really important to put weight on the hand.

"I think it was one of the worst injuries for a rider, to have those two bones...

"It's healing well, it's healing fast, normally it can be a problem [but it's not] - so I'm happy about how I'm recovering."

Aprilia impressions and return timeline

Having looked from the sidelines at Aprilia's promising but largely unfruitful start to the season, Martin said the believed the new RS-GP bike's potential was "much, much better than last season".

But he admitted that, even had he avoided the training accident, it is unlikely that he will have been able to stop Marc Marquez's early-season romp.

"At the moment I think even if I was on track it was impossible because in my condition. I have to be realistic, with five or six thousand kilometres less, coming from an injury, and with a new bike, completely new bike, because I only did 10 laps in Sepang - I need to be realistic and focus on myself and this is what I will do."

He now expects to return to competition in Qatar, while Aprilia's push to figure out a rule change to allow him a preparatory MotoGP test before then seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

"I won't ride any bike till that moment [in Qatar] because I don't want to have again the same- imagine if I go training next week and I broke my head or my neck," Martin joked. "I will wait till Qatar.

"I don't know, maybe I go there, I ride [in first practice] and I cannot continue - or maybe yes [I can]. I don't know how will be my condition, for sure I won't be at 100 percent but I will maybe try."