Oct 7 (Reuters) – MotoGP champion Marc Marquez will miss the next two rounds of the season in Australia and Malaysia after suffering a fracture and ligament injury to his right shoulder in a crash at the Indonesian Grand Prix, Ducati said. Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi collided with the rear of Marquez's Ducati on Sunday and the pair both hurtled into the gravel at high speed, with Marquez appearing to be in significant discomfort after tumbling head over heels. Marquez, who won his seventh MotoGP championship at the Japanese Grand Prix last month, was hunched over on the side of the track for a couple of minutes before staggering to his feet and lurching away while clutching his shoulder. The injury was on the shoulder of the arm Marquez had fractured in the 2020 July season-opening Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, an incident which ruled him out for an extended period and required several surgeries. In a statement on Monday, Ducati said Marquez had "suffered a fracture at the base of the coracoid process and a ligament injury to his right shoulder. "Clinical examination and radiological assessment have ruled out any connection with previous injuries and have also confirmed the absence of significant bone displacement." Marquez could still compete at Grands Prix in Portugal (November 7-9) and Valencia (November 14-16), but he stressed that he would not rush his recovery. "My goal is to be back before the end of the season, but without rushing things beyond the doctors' recommendations," the Spaniard added. "Both my personal and the team's main goals have been achieved, so now the priority is to recover properly and return at 100%." (Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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