Wiggins was sixth overall before Friday's seventh stage Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky is due to have surgery on Monday to repair his broken collarbone after crashing out of the Tour de France on Friday.Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said: "He has seen a specialist and will have a couple of plates inserted.
"He shouldn't be off the bike for long."
Wiggins, 31, was forced to abandon the race 40km from the end of the 218km seventh stage in Chateauroux following a multiple pile-up.
Brailsford added: "It's the most common injury in cycling so in general people know how to rehab from it.
"He will be operated on in due course and then it's a question of recovery and recalibrating for the season and moving forward."
A day after Edvald Boasson Hagen secured Team Sky's first Tour victory, Wiggins was caught up in an accident towards the back of the peloton on the stage from Le Mans to Chateauroux, which was won by Mark Cavendish.
Following consultation with the race medic and further assessment from Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman, Wiggins was helped into an ambulance and taken to hospital.
Wiggins was sixth overall, 10 seconds behind race leader Thor Hushovd of the Garmin-Cervelo team, entering yesterday's stage, with the Massif Central, the Pyrenees and the Alps to come.
David Millar is Britain's best placed rider overall, lying fourth eight seconds behind his team-mate Hushovd.
For Wiggins the disappointment of his early departure would have been deepened by the fact that he had entered this year's tour in fine form.
In early June the three-time Olympic gold medallist won the Dauphine Libere and later in the month he added the road race title at the British Championships.
"What was disappointing was that he was in such great shape," said Brailsford. "He was in the form of his life and we really felt that he could go top five or better."
A realistic target now for Wiggins is September's road time-trial at the World Championships in Copenhagen.
Meanwhile, the Tour continues on Saturday with the 189km eighth stage from Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy in the Massif Central.
After losing their leader, Brailsford admitted that Team Sky's plans for the Tour have changed.
"Up until 40km to go yesterday we'd had a good race," he said. "I'm sure we can continue, but in a different type of race.
"Rather than look at the top of the GC [general classification] we'll look at stages and see if we can get on the front foot and be aggressive."
Brit Geraint Thomas has ruled out stepping up to replace team leader Wiggins.
"I just don't have the threshold or the power to be able to compete with the best climbers in the big mountan stages, at least not yet," said Thomas. "That was never part of the plan.
"We've lost our GC guy, but that gives us the opportunity to go for stages.
"Edvald's win a couple of days ago was great for the team, and it took a bit of pressure off us. We've still got eight strong riders here and there's a lot of racing to be done."
At the start of Saturday's stage from Aigurande to Super-Besse Thomas sat three minutes 18 seconds behind Norwegian race leader Hushovd.
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