Aston Villa are hoping striker Gabriel Agbonlahor's early withdrawal from Thursday night's Europa League loss to Rapid Vienna will not signal another spell on the sidelines. Agbonlahor returned after missing the first three games of the campaign with hamstring and back problems.
After scoring the opener, he suffered tight calf muscles and was substituted five minutes before half-time in the 3-2 second-leg loss which saw Villa miss out on the group stages of the Europa League, losing 4-3 to Rapid on aggregate.
Boss Kevin MacDonald said: "Gabby's calves were very tight and so we felt it was best to take him off earlier rather than later in case it tended to go into a calf strain which might put him out for a few weeks.
"We are hopeful it might only be a little bit of tightness at the moment but we will not be able to tell until later on Friday.
"He is a major player for this club and we need to get him fit and keep him fit for as long as possible."
Carew was Villa's top scorer with 17 goals last season but MacDonald admitted: "John has got this ongoing (knee) injury that we have to keep managing.
"He can't play three games in a week at the moment."
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