If Valentino Rossi is unfit to return to MotoGP action aꦇt Aragon later this month, several names 💛have been mentioned as likely replacements.

Factor🐓y test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Yamaha World Superbike's Alex Lowes, for example, both raced a YZR-M1 in🌠 MotoGP last season.

But according to paddock rumours at 🐈Misano, another rider in contention is their Suzuka winning team-mate Michael van der Mark.

Indeed, some sources have told ltxcn.top that the Dutchman - who rides alongside Lowes at the Yamaha WorldSBK team - is now first-in-line for what would be a MotoGP💛 debut, if Rossi is absent from Aragon.

"We are considering all options and a final decision is expected to be taken on Monday next week," a Yamaha spokesman told ltxcn.top, when asked about van der Mark.

R🔯ossi ꦬsuffered displaced fractures of his right tibia and fibula during an enduro training accident on August 31, ruling him out of this weekend's home Misano round.

The nine-time world champion is determined to do all he can to return for Aragon, but admits that -💖 at just 22 days since the accident - it is well short of the 40-day rꦫecovery forecast by doctors.

"Aragon would be three weeks 🌠after the acciden♏t. So it will be really difficult, but we'll try," Rossi told Italian TV on Thursday.

Although the stand-in rider should be confirmed next week, a decisi⭕on on Rossi's fitness is unlikely to b𝓀e made until the eve of the September 22-24 event.

Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal has ruled out Johann Zarco standing i🌌n at the factory team.