However he sprained his knee ligaments in Saturday’s Heineken Cup win over Treviso and faces a spell of six weeks on the sidelines.

Guy Novès, Dusautoir’s coach at Toulouse, said: “Thierry has sprained his medial ligaments with a slight tear. It will take him four to six weeks to recover.

“It’s a big blow for him, but also for Toulouse who will have to cope without him for some big games coming up.

“I want to remain positive though, we avoided the worst scenario with his cruciate ligaments but we could have done without this.”

With Dusautoir unavailable Stade Français lock Pascal Papé is expected to take over the captaincy for the first two Tests.

Papé led Les Bleus on their summer tour of Argentina and had been named vice-captain by Philippe Saint-André last week.

It remains to be seen who will be called up to replace Dusautoir in the back row by Saint-Andre with five other back rows already in the squad.