Stade Toulousain fly-half Frédéric Michalak will definitely miss Saturday’s home match against leaders Brive.

The 26-year-old limped off after just 20 minutes of the club’s opening Top 14 game against Montauban with a recurrence of the hamstring strain he suffered in pre-season.

The injury prompted an angry outburst from coach Guy Noves, who claimed the statutory rest period for a host of international players had forced him to start Michalak, even though he wasn’t fully fit. This, however, ran in stark contrast to his pronouncements earlier in the week when he insisted he would not “take a risk” with Michalak’s fitness.

As it turned out, replacement fly-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde came off the bench and eventually kicked the club to a last-ditch 17-16 win when he converted Patricio Albacete's late try.

Noves could opt to retain Elissalde at No 10 against Brive, although he will also now have the option of playing Florian Fritz there as all fit internationals are now available for selection.

Montpellier are also counting the cost of their opening-day fixture – a 30-9 defeat at Brive – with prop Eugène Van Staaden (internal ligament damage on left knee), back row Jérôme Vallée (broken toe) and Olivier Sarraméa (dislocated finger) all on the crock list.

Biarritz were given a welcome double boost this week with news that international scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili has started training and France No 8 Imanol Harinordoquy will do likewise shortly. Their returns clearly can’t come soon enough following their surprise 24-12 home defeat by Castres on Saturday.

It was a result that left club president Serge Blanco stunned. “I think we went into the game with a mild euphoria after three wins in our friendly matches, we must recover quickly,” he said, before promising things would improve.

“The coaches will not fail to highlight the errors we need to put right and we’ll see how the players react,” added the former France international. Blanco said it was now up to the players to prove their worth and described the defeat as “an accident”.

Stade Francais coach Ewen McKenzie has named props Sylvain Marconnet and Rodrigo Roncero as joint captains for the 2009/10 season. The front row duo replace last year’s combination of Pierre Rabadan and Sergio Parisse, with McKenzie saying that he wanted as many on-pitch leaders as possible.

Clermont Auvergne will have international lock Loic Jacquet available for Saturday’s clash with Montauban, but props Davit Zirakashvili and Martin Scelzo have both been ruled out. The latter duo add to a growing injured list that already includes internationals Julien Bonnaire, Marius Joubert, Benoit Baby and Julien Malzieu. Scrum-half Kevin Senio is also doubtful.