Marc Marquez was giving little away about his immediate future as he faced the media ahead of the Dutch TT in Assen for the first time since a crash-riddled weekend at the Sachsenring led to him withdrawing from the German MotoGP.

The eight-time GP World Champion - an 11-time race winner around the Saxony venue - suffered five large crashes in the run up to the race, with the last and most bruising incident in morning warm-up motivating his decision to pull out altogether.

While there has only been a handful of days since then for Marquez to prepare himself for this weekend’s eighth round of the season, he will be present at Assen, in part because two of Honda’s four riders - Alex Rins and Joan Mir - have already been forced out through injury.

Even so, Marquez - who too has missed three rounds this year with a hand injury - will be carrying pain this weekend after it was revealed he had cracked a rib in one of his crashes.

“[On the] limit but ready to race, especially in Germany when I crashed in warm-up, the first hour I felt ready to go [race] but then the passing hours and minutes, I felt more and more pain especially on the ankle. 

“But then I felt strange and it was a crack in the second rib. This will be the most painful this weekend but we will start step by step and then we will see.”

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With the summer break looming after this event, attention is also turning to whether Marquez will use the time to consider his future with Honda in MotoGP.

Though Marquez - who has raced with Repsol Honda ever since his MotoGP debut in 2013 - has another year left on his contract, his evident frustration with the team’s decline since winning six titles in seven seasons has called this into question.

Though he initially evades the question about his plans when interviewed by the MotoGP broadcast, he goes on to say that he will continue to give his ‘maximum’ for the foreseeable future.

“If I’m here it’s because compromise with Honda is my maximum, I want to work with them to work for the future, improve our project.

“At the moment I am here to work with them and working with them for the future means next year’s project, this year won’t change a lot, so the compromise is maximum.”