But the 32-year-old aggravated the injury in training so England’s back-row unit of Tom Wood, James Haskell and Nick Easter remains unchanged and Mike Tindall retains the captaincy.

Alex Corbisiero, following his impressive debut against Italy, drops back to the bench to accommodate the return of Sheridan.

David Wilson misses out from the 22 with injury but otherwise it is an unchanged set-up for Martin Johnson.

In contrast to Marc Lievremont, who has made four changes, Johnson has kept tinkering to a minimum, partly because of two impressive performances which have seen England rack up ten tries.

With Les Bleus also unbeaten, it sets the tone for a fascinating clash at Twickenham with the winners being in pole position to secure the Six Nations Championship and potentially a Grand Slam.

15 – Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)
14 – Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)
13 – Mike Tindall (Gloucester) (Captain)
12 – Shontayne Hape (Bath)
11 – Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks)
10 – Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
9 – Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
1 – Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks)
2 – Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
3 – Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
4 – Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)
5 – Tom Palmer (Stade Français)
6 – Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
7 – James Haskell (Stade Français)
8 – Nick Easter (Harlequins)
Replacements:
16 – Steve Thompson (Leeds Carnegie)
17 – Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
18 – Simon Shaw (London Wasps)
19 – Hendre Fourie (Leeds Carnegie)
20 – Danny Care (Harlequins)
21 – Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon)
22 – Matt Banahan (Bath)