Scotland could be facing a lock crisis ahead of the Calcutta Cup game on Saturday that could even mean a recall for Scott Murray, the country’s most capped player, even though he has not played for his club for the last couple of weeks. He has been involved in only one training session since the World Cup, but with up to three of the four locks that Scotland have called upon being injured, the selectors may have no choice about inviting him back for the RBS Six Nations Championship match against England at Murrayfield.

The lock problem became critical midway through Glasgow’s 9-6 win on Friday night over the Ospreys, the reigning champions, when the knee injury that has been niggling Alastair Kellock, the club captain, flared up again.

Afterwards Sean Lineen, the club coach, revealed that it was a recurrence of the same problem that had seen him pull out of the match against Llanelli two weeks earlier during the warm-up.

“It just locks up,” said Lineen. “We’ll have to wait and see. It happened before and he could not play in the game, at least we he got a bit of action in his match. I think there might be a bit of bone floating around, which would mean a two or three clearout job. We are not sure yet, though.” Kellock did manage to come through the A-team match a week after his call-off against Llanelli, looking impressive in that game and the 40 minutes he managed at the weekend.

However, it would be a huge gamble for Scotland to select him for the national side knowing that he is carrying an injury that could rule him out at any second.

Jim Hamilton, the lock who started the first two games of Scotland’s campaign, is definitely unavailable after spraining an ankle minutes after coming on against Ireland, while Scott MacLeod is doubtful after sustaining a shoulder injury. He is in a race to recover in time to face England, with no guarantees that he will make it.

If all three were to be ruled out, Frank Hadden, the head coach, and George Graham, the forwards coach, would have limited options available. Craig Hamilton, the Edinburgh lock, was called in to the training squad the last time they found themselves shorthanded in that department, but that was more a case of him being available at short notice – Murray is based in Montauban in the south west of France – since he is not a regular first choice for the club.

After that, alternatives are hard to find. Hamilton was not in the original starting XV for the A team a fortnight ago, behind Mark Rennie, the Bourgoin lock/back row, but did start when the team was shuffled after David Callam dropped out of the back row. While he did nothing wrong, did not do a great deal to advance his case either.

On the other hand Murray has not played in Montauban’s last two games after being dropped to the bench in mid-February.

Of the remaining candidates for places in the Scotland side to face England, only Nick De Luca, the centre, seems to be a doubt. Simon Taylor, the No 8, came through his second full game for Stade Francais – a 9-6 defeat away at Biarritz – without too much trouble and is certain to feature in Hadden’s thinking about this weekend.

Dan Parks kicked all Glasgow’s points in their win, while Phil Godman also put over a couple of kicks in Edinburgh’s 10-10 draw at Newport, while Chris Paterson did not feature at all in Gloucester’s defeat at Harlequins, adding nothing much to what the selectors already knew about the fly half debate.

Elsewhere Jason White has still not proved his fitness after his concussion but Alasdair Strokosch, Nathan Hines and Rory Lamont all got a full 80 minutes of rugby at the weekend and there were no reports of any serious problems, leaving the second row the area of biggest concern as the international squad gathers at Murrayfield this morning.