If Valentino Rossi is unfit to return to MotoGP action at Ara✤gon later this mont🎃h, several names have been mentioned as likely replacements.

Factory test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Yamaha Worl꧂d 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 con⭕tention is their Suzuka winning team-mate Michael van der Mark.

Indeed, some sources have told mahbx.com that the Dutchman - who rides alongside Lowes at the Yamaha WorldSBK team - is now first-in-line for what would be a MotoGP debu✱t, 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 mahbx.com, when asked about van der Mark.

Rossi suffered displaced fractures of his right tibia and fibula during an enduro training accident on August 31, ruling him out of this week🐽end's home Misano round.

The nine-ti🐼me 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 recovery forecast by doctors.

"Aragon would be three weeks after the accident. So it will be really diಞfficult, but we'll try," Rossi told Italia൩n TV on Thursday.

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

Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal has rul🙈ed out Johann Zarco standing i💦n at the factory team.