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(Image: Getty)

The Italian suffered a double fracture in his right leg back in August after a motocross accident.

Rossi was forced to miss his home race at Misano but returned to the track just 22 days after the incident.

The veteran has continued to ride during his recovery, however has failed to close the gap at the top of the standings.

Rossi is 85 points behind leader Marc Marquez, who has the chance to wrap up the championship next weekend as the season concludes in Spain.

But the 38-year-old does not believe his injury is the reason for his poor campaign.

“For me, not a lot better because I have too many problems,” Rossi said, when asked how much higher in the championship he would've been had the accident not happened.

“During this season and like we spoke before Silverstone, I already said that I was not strong enough to fight for the championship.

“So, realistically speaking, even if I don't break the leg, I can't fight for the championship because I was not strong enough.

"I was never able to do two good races in a row.”

Rossi has made no secret of his disappointment when it comes to his Yamaha bike this season.

(Image: Getty)

But he believes it can be successful when racing on dry surfaces.

“In my opinion the potential of the bike is not bad, the problem is it doesn’t work with the tyres,” he added.

“The bike at the start of the year had big problems, while this [2018-spec chassis] we’ve only had since Silverstone and then I broke my leg. So we are behind the others in certain aspects.

“But in the dry we have learned many important things, even though it has been a very difficult season.”