Forward Racing has announced that Colin Edwards will miss the forthcomi🤪ng French MotoGP at ಌLe Mans from May 18-20.

Edwards broke his collarbone into five piece♛s when fellow CRT rider Randy de Punie🌺t fell and collected the Texan in qualifying at Estoril on Saturday.

It marked the fourth time Edwards has fractured h♍is left collarbone.

The 38-year-old underwent surgery in💃 Barcelona on Monday when a titanium plate with ten screws was inserted to help the injury heal.

Doctors, the🥃 team and Edwards all agree that he should not rush his recovery and the #5 thus intends to return for the Catalan r⛄ound on June 1-3.

In the meantime Forward Racing will field a replacement rider ꧃for Le Mans. "Several riders have approached the team but no final decision w♈ill be made until tomorrow [Wednesday]," said a team statement.

Edwards has also taken a personal interest in the substitute search, asking on his Twitter pဣage @TexasTornado5 who fans would like to see ride his Suter-BMW.

A 💃later posting hinted at a possible shortlist: "So if u had a༺ choice: Leon Haslam or Chris Vermeulen to ride my bike in Le Mans?"

Haslam races for the factory BMW team in World Superbikes, while currently unsigned Vermeulen took a wet MotoGP wi൲n at Le Mans for Suzuki in 2007.

An update Tweet from Edwards on Wednesday morning added: "So who's it gonna be on the Forward NGM MotoGP bike at LeMans? Tweet votes were close to 50/50... let's see what the Boss decides today :)🦩"