Jean-Baptiste Elissalde's hopes of a recall to the France squad are likely to be dashed after the scrum-half hurt his elbow on club duty at the weekend.

Reports suggest Elissalde could be out for six weeks with the injury he sustained half an hour into Toulouse's 9–6 win over Montauban in the Top 14 on Saturday.

It means the 31-year-old is almost certainly ruled out of contention for a place in France's squad for their last two matches of the Six Nations, against England and Italy.

After missing France's opening three games of the tournament, with the head coach, Marc Lièvremont, preferring to give game time to the young scrum-halves Sébastien Tillous-Borde and Morgan Parra, Elissalde was expected to be brought back into the fold.

Lièvremont, who will name on Wednesday his 23-man group for the England match, could now stick with Parra and Tillous-Borde as his two No9s for the final two games.

But he will make changes elsewhere in his squad, with the Toulouse pair David Skrela and Florian Fritz among those likely to return, despite Les Bleus' superb performance in beating Wales 21–16 in Paris on Friday.

"At the risk of surprising you, of displeasing you and some of my players, we have a way of working that goes outside the 23 players we have at the moment," Lièvremont said. "Victory or defeat, we are trying to keep our heads. It will be more painful but at the same time easier to change some players.

"Whatever happened in the [Wales] match, I have always been thinking of making certain changes in certain positions."