Thomas to return for Toulouse

Wales captain Gareth Thomas should be back in action for his club team Toulouse within a week, after the infection in his broken thumb was revealed to be only superficial.

"When they took the cast off there was a big stench from an infection," Thomas revealed in his column for BBC Sport.

"If it was in the bone they would have had to do the operation again, but luckily it was just in the skin."

A bone infection would have ruled Thomas out for anything up to eight weeks - possibly damaging his British Lions aspirations, and definitely ruling him out of the Heineken Cup semi-final against Leicester on April 24.

But Wales' record try scorer says he is "over the moon" to be given the all-clear and cannot wait to get back on a rugby field again.