Espargaro to return to MotoGP action in Misano

Espargaro broke his left collarbone in a crash during the Sunday warm-up at Brno and had to sit out that weekend's race, before also missing the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone rounds.

The seriousness of his crash was later revealed by his brother Aleix, who said Pol "couldn't feel arms or legs" after his incident.

With tester Mika Kallio also out of action, KTM faced a conundrum in finding a replacement rider, and the team tackled its home round in Austria with only Bradley Smith.

The team then signed Randy de Puniet as a test rider for the rest of 2018 but named Loris Baz as stand-in for the eventually cancelled Silverstone race.

However, de Puniet was set to ride at Misano, the Frenchman doing a test at Aragon last week, in case Espargaro was still unavailable.

But the Spaniard has now confirmed that he is set to return to racing in the San Marino Grand Prix.

The injury break marked the first time Espargaro was unable to attend race weekends since he made his MotoGP debut in 2014.