Despite being given as long as possible by coach Ian McGeechan it has been decided not to risk captain John Leslie in Saturday's Lloyds TSB Six Nations game at Lansdowne Road against Ireland.
The New Zealand born centre returned from a serious leg injury sustained in the World Cup to captain the side for the first time against Italy two weeks ago but lasted only 14 minutes before damaging his hip, forcing his replacement. Since then he has been undergoing intensive physiotherapy and missed a possible debut for his new club Newcastle last weekend.
McGeechan had originally set Tuesday as the date for the captain to prove his fitness, but extended the deadline to Thursday in an effort to have the influential centre in the starting line up.
His place in the midfield goes to Graham Shiel while Bryan Redpath will take over the captaincy.
G Metcalfe (Glasgow Caledonians); S Longstaff (Glasgow Caledonians), J Mayer(Bristol), G Shiel (Edinburgh Reivers), K Logan (Wasps); G Townsend (Brive), B Redpath (Narbonne); T Smith (Brive), G Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), M Stewart (Northampton), S Murray (Saracens), S Grimes (Newcastle), M Leslie (Edinburgh Reivers), B Pountney (Northampton), G Simpson (Glasgow Caledonians).
Replacements: J McLaren (Bourgoin), D Hodge (Edinburgh Reivers), A Nicol (Glasgow Caledonians), G Graham (Newcastle), R Russell (Saracens),D Weir (Newcastle), S Reid (Narbonne).