England flanker James Haskell is the subject of a tug-of-war between his employers and his country © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: James Haskell

Tournaments/Tours: Six Nations | French Top 14

Teams: England | France | Stade Français | Toulouse

Stade Francais president Max Guazzini remains hopeful that England flanker James Haskell will be released for this weekend's Top 14 clash with Toulouse and has accused the Rugby Football Union of treating the player like "a hostage".

The French giants are locked in a dispute with the RFU over Haskell's availability for the game, with the club demanding his return and his country insisting that there is no binding reason for the 24-year-old to do so. The RFU have so far maintained that they have an agreement with Stade over player release, but the club released a statement yesterday refuting that claim.

Guazzini has since vented his frustration at the deadlock but the big-spending owner is still hoping that the matter will be resolved in the club's favour. Haskell did not train with the England squad on Thursday after becoming the sixth player to be laid low by a stomach bug.

"We still hope that he will come back tomorrow," Guazzini told the Daily Mail. "Under IRB law nine, international players are available to national teams for certain periods in the year and this week is not one of those periods. There are players from Scotland and Italy back at clubs this week so why should England decide to treat James Haskell like a hostage?

"It's not true that we've signed an agreement with the RFU. We have never signed any agreement with them. We let James join England for a week before the November Tests and for a week before the Six Nations. We have shown respect to England but the RFU have not shown us any. We have a big problem here. The RFU don't pay the French clubs - we pay the player and we need James Haskell because this is a very important match for us.

"They are acting outside the rules. There's no problem with other countries - the French players are all here, the Italians, the Scottish. It's only a problem with England. I cannot understand why they are taking this position."

The newspaper reports that Haskell ready and willing to play for Stade on Saturday in what is set to be a 75,000 sell-out at the Stade de France and that the club have already sent him a written warning about missing training.

England's director of elite rugby, Rob Andrew, has lamented the situation and called for "absolute certainty" over player release heading into a World Cup year.

"We must be absolute certain about player release," he told The Evening Standard. "Going into the World Cup year we cannot have all sorts of rights and compromises becoming issues.

"Last July we asked for an undertaking from those players in France and we received that from James's lawyer stating he had agreement from his club covering all of the release periods. I am not glad this has forced the issue into the open although I thought something like this might happen."