Simon Webster has been ruled out of Saturday's Six Nations Championship clash between Scotland and Italy because of an ankle injury.

Webster picked up the injury during Edinburgh's 13-6 Magners League defeat to Leinster on Friday night.

But it remains unclear whether the 25-year-old winger will be fit in time for Scotland's match against Ireland on March 10th.

"Simon Webster won't make it this weekend. It's unfortunate for Simon but that's the way it goes," said Frank Hadden, the Scotland coach.

"Nobody will be more disappointed than Simon because he was relishing the opportunity to get game time.

"I watched the game and the incident seemed pretty innocuous. As soon as I heard he was out I didn't ask any further questions."

Webster played the last fifteen minutes as a replacement in Scotland's victory over Wales last week. He played on Friday night because he was still short of match practice after two frustrating months stuck on the sidelines with an injury to his other ankle. the right one, which would not clear up.

Webster has been an effective impact player from the bench for Scotland on a number of occasions.

With Scotland struggling to make an impact out wide despite dominating possession and territory against Wales, there seemed every possibility that the energetic Webster might be promoted to the starting fifteen had he remained fit.

With Webster also covering centre last week, Andy Henderson appears to be the more likely candidate to step up into the match-day 22.

Nikki Walker was also on the bench last week, and if his services are retained then he would cover the outside back positions.

However, Rory Lamont, who put in an impressive display for Glasgow in their victory over Llanelli Scarlets on Friday night, is also in the running for a recall to the squad.

Lamont is primarily a wing or full-back, but he has played inside centre before - for Scotland A against Australia last November.

"That's something we've got to look at in selection. We will make sure before we go out that we have every position covered, and that we know who is going to go where at what time," added Hadden.

"Rory's was not a perfect performance against Llanelli, although his steal close to the line could have been a match-winner. That's what we want, match-winning guys playing for us.

"We started selecting the evening after the Welsh match and we've talked about it every single day since.

"You never take your World Cup hat off, but the most important thing is to beat Italy this week.

"I'm still delighted with the manner of how we beat Wales last time, and it's a challenge to us to do something similar to Italy."