Wallabies tormentor Jonny Wilkinson could yet play a part in the blockbuster British and Irish Lions series of Australia despite being overlooked for the initial 37-man touring squad named on Tuesday.

Lions coach Warren Gatland revealed Wilkinson ruled himself out of contention due to French rugby club commitments with Matt Giteau’s Toulon and also because of concerns over his battered, near-34-year-old body.

Wilkinson, who famously slotted the extra-time drop goal in England’s 2003 World Cup final triumph over Australia in Sydney before also booting the Wallabies out of the 2007 edition in France, has been in outstanding touch for Toulon.

But Gatland said the veteran fly-half told him to look elsewhere.

“I rang Jonny and spoke to him,” the Lions coach said in a teleconference to Australia on Tuesday night.

“He’s committed to Toulon at the moment and the fact that the French final is on the first of June, which probably Toulon are going to be involved in, and that’s the first game that we play the Barbarians in Hong Kong.

“Potentially someone like Jonny wouldn’t have been available until the fourth game on tour and we’ve got such limited preparation – we’ve only really got a day together before we fly out as a squad to Hong Kong in the first place.

“And he said to me: `To be honest, he’s just hanging on by his fingernails in terms of keeping his body together and managing himself week by week’.

“But it was a good conversation. He really respected the chat we had and we left it open.

“We said if we do pick up an injury on tour and we are able to call on Jonny in terms of his experience, it maybe something that may happen later on in the tour.”

Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton and England’s Owen Farrell were the only two five-eighths selected in Gatland’s touring squad on Tuesday.