Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke faces up to six weeks on the sidelines with a hip injury.

The Belgium international has had scans with Villa fearing the damage could have been bad enough to sideline the striker, who netted 23 goals in his first season in the Premier League, for months rather than weeks.

But speaking after his side's 4-0 defeat to Spurs in the third round of the League Cup, manger Paul Lambert confirmed that the injury picked up by Benteke during Villa's 1-0 win over Norwich on Saturday isn't as bad as first thought.

"It's not as bad as we feared it was going to be. Maybe four, five, six weeks or so," said Lambert.

"We've spoken to the medical people and obviously they give you the best and worse case scenario. You're never quite sure until you hear from the professor to find out how it is."

Lambert also confirmed that Benteke, who has already scored five goals for his club this season, would miss Belgium's final World Cup qualifiers against Croatia and Wales next month.

"I've spoken to Marc Wilmots (Belgium manager) after the game on Saturday and I'm pretty sure he won't play. We'll do our best to get him back quickly."