Ellissalde Fighting For Fitness

Toulouse scrumhalf Jean-Baptiste Elissalde is facing a fitness battle before his side's Heineken Cup quarter-final against Edinburgh in April

Ellisalde's absence for the remainder of the RBS Six Nations seems likely following confirmation that the thigh injury he picked up against Wales last weekend is serious.

The scrum-half has impressed for Les Bleus since taking over the number nine shirt from retired former captain Fabien Galthie, and has been a key player in his side's 2003/4 Heineken Cup campaign as Toulouse qualified as top seeds for the quarter-finals.

But the influential 26-year-old has a muscle tear which will mean a minimum four-week lay-off and, has been on crutches since being stretchered off in the dying minutes.

'I have had strains in my life but I think this one is the worst,' he said. 'I have never experienced such a pain.'

Elissalde, a key member of the Toulouse side, insisted: 'I know that I am penalising my club for the rest of the campaign but I thought I could go on.

'When the doctors came to see me I said I was feeling just a little pain. I would have died on that pitch. I did not want to come off, that's all.'

Noves believes the player should have left the field as soon as he felt a twinge.

'If Jean-Baptiste had asked to come off when he felt the first pains, he would have been out for two weeks and that would have been it,' Noves told L'Equipe.

'But now he is out for two months and we might even not be able to get him back before the end of the season.

Elissalde is set to undergo further medical tests in the next few days but already thinks his chances of recovery by 27 March, when England are due to visit the Stade de France, are 'slim'. Toulouse's match against Edinburgh on April 10.