Michalak has been struggling with a groin injury recently and has been unable to train so far this week.

However, the Toulouse ace was still included in the first XV when coach Bernard Laporte announced his team on Tuesday and Maso believes he will be fine for Sundays match at Murrayfield.

If we called him up it's because he is capable of playing, said Maso.

We did not want to rest him for the first match. We've always said that if we had to choose between a regular first-team member who is at 80 per cent of his physical potential and his replacement who is at 100 per cent, we would take the latter.

Fred (Michalak) suffers from a niggling cramp not a tear and this has not prevented him from performing for Toulouse this month.

Laporte added: Fred is a key player of our squad, that's why he was rested this week.

Meanwhile, Toulouse lock Fabien Pelous returns to captain the side after serving a nine-week ban for elbowing Australia hooker Brendan Cannon during November's Test match against the Wallabies.

Winger Christophe Dominici and full-back Nicolas Brusque are also back in the team while prop Sylvain Marconnet was preferred to Olivier Milloud, completing an all-Stade Francais front row.

We had the choice between two excellent props, Laporte explained. To choose between them we had to see the context.

Olivier was ill at the start of January and he's been experiencing a loss of form since.

Sylvain, however, is in better shape than during the autumn. He is the one who looked the most likely to hold on for an hour of play.''

France won all four of their Test matches in November - beating Australia, Canada, Tonga and South Africa - and Laporte is confident they can carry on where they left off despite the two-month break.

We left the players over two months ago, but we have found the same enthusiasm and concentration, the France boss said.

We will travel to Murrayfield to win.