A Frenchman being tried for recruiting strangers to rape his drugged wife has been hospitalised, his lawyer said on Tuesday, in a development that could see the trial adjourned.

Dominique Pelicot, a 71-year-old retiree, has been on trial since last week for repeatedly raping and enlisting dozens of strangers to abuse his heavily sedated wife in her own bed between 2011 and 2020.

Fifty other men, aged between 26 and 74, are also on trial for alleged involvement, in a case that has horrified France.

The main defendant, who has admitted to the charges against him, was to be questioned on Tuesday afternoon.

But on Monday he appeared frail, leaning on a cane and the glass side of the dock, and was excused from court over what his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said was abdominal pain.

On Tuesday, he was hospitalised, Zavarro told the court, saying it would make "no sense to continue without him being present".

Presiding judge Roger Arata ordered that the accused be examined, saying he could request a suspension of the trial "until his state of health improves".

During a break on Tuesday, Zavarro said that her client was in no way "evading" his trial.

"Mr Pelicot will not evade his trial. He will be there, he will respond to all questions. But he has this medical issue that he did not plan," she said.

She said his pains had started on Friday.

"He has always said he would be present and testify. It's essential," she added.