Plymouth Argyle top scorer Lorent Tolaj will be out for four weeks with a leg injury.
The 24-year-old pulled out of Tuesday’s Vertu Trophy quarter-final loss at Luton Town on the afternoon of the game.
He had missed three-and-a-half weeks with a dead leg, but scored twice in the 5-2 win over League One leaders Cardiff City on Saturday.
Head coach Tom Cleverley says Tolaj has a muscle tear in the same leg that had been injured, but that the issues are unrelated.
“For his first game back, the occasion and the opposition, he went absolutely full throttle and got a small muscle tear from the weekend, so we’ll be without Tolly for four weeks,” he told BBC Radio Devon.
Tolaj has scored 17 goals since moving to Argyle in August from Port Vale and become a key player in the side.
Cleverley says he is happy that the Pilgrims did not bring the Swiss striker back from injury too early:
“Cardiff was very safe for him to play and I think his intensity levels meant that he pushed to the absolute maximum, which he can do,” he added.
“Can he do that after not playing for four weeks? We’ve seen no.
“We don’t have the luxury of going ‘Tolly’s return to play is 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes,’ we need points now.
“Every time a footballer steps over that white line there’s risk attached to it and you never want to be over-cautious.
“We all sit comfortably, the player, the medical team, myself, with the decision for him to play at the weekend and unfortunately he’s not come through it.”
