NEWCASTLE midfielder Remy Cabella has been ruled out of tomorrow's home game with Aston Villa - and is already a major doubt for next Wednesday's game with Manchester United.

Cabella is suffering from a knee injury, which prevented him from appearing in last weekend's 5-0 thrashing at Manchester City.

He is still to return to full training, and will play no part in tomorrow's game against a Villa side that have begun to show signs of improvement under new boss Tim Sherwood.

John Carver is hoping Cabella will improve in time to feature in next week's game with Manchester United, but admits he will be reluctant to play the Frenchman on Wednesday unless he has proved he is back to full tilt.

Carver said: "He's not available for this weekend. Fingers crossed he'll be okay for Man United, but it's only four or five days from Saturday to Wednesday, so we'll have to see.

"He's improving day by day, but to the extent of going in against Manchester United, he needs to be 100 per cent, so I will speak to the medical people and they will fill me in. It's changing for the positive day by day, which is good."

Meanwhile, Newcastle have recalled youngster Callum Roberts from a loan spell at Vanarama Conference side Gateshead after he was omitted from the side that beat Kidderminster 2-0 on Tuesday.

Carver said: "He was left out of the team so we brought him back because they wanted him to play in their reserve team.

“With all due respect, we thought he was better off playing in our Under-21 team than with Gateshead."