Rossi signed a two-year contract extension earlier this week that will keep him with Yamaha until the end of the 2020 season.
The Italian has not ruled out racing beyond that point either although a move into team management seems inevitable at some point.
And former Yamaha MotoGP rider Toseland reckons that when Rossi stops being able to compete at the front of the grid, seven-time world champion will hang up his helmet for good.
“He will only go when he really doesn’t feel that he’s competitive any more,” BT Sport pundit Toseland told Express Sport.
When his latest Yamaha contract expires, Rossi will be 41, making him the first over-40 in MotoGP since Colin Edwards in 2014.
And Toseland believes his remarkable longevity simply would not have been possible without modern technology - and a slice of luck.
“With the nutrition and sports science that we’ve got available to us as athletes these days, everybody’s careers have been extended by four or five years from where it used to be,” Toseland added.
“I think he’s benefited from that new science and technology that’s come to keep his training in a way that, for a 39-year-old, wasn’t really possible 10 or 15 years ago.
“It’s enabling us to do so now and it’s great because all the fans and everybody else gets the opportunity to see him ride for an extended period of time.
“With motorcycle racing, you’ve got to stay away from the injuries.
“Okay, Valentino has broken his leg twice but that’s it. In a 22-year career, that’s unheard of.
“I think I’d had two broken bones within the first two weeks I got on a bike. That just shows his skill level.”
Rossi is by no means the dominant force in MotoGP that he was when he won his seven world titles: between 2001 and 2009 he only twice failed to finish top of the standings.
However, he remains an important figurehead as the man who has been called “Michael Schumacher on two wheels”.
“Valentino Rossi for MotoGP is the most important person on the grid: for [the media] talking about it, for TV wanting to broadcast it and I’m just really really happy that [current world champion Marc] Marquez, [Maverick] Vinales and a couple of other people have come in who have that flair and that personality to take over when Valentino does retire,” Toseland said.
“And last year it was great to see him still riding so well.”
***BT Sport is where the best in sport go head to head. Watch the new MotoGP season exclusively live on BT Sport 2, starting in Qatar on Sunday 18th March. For more info visit www.BT.com/sport***
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