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MANCHESTER. — Manuel Pellegrini has revealed Sergio Aguero required half-time treatment on a hamstring injury before his remarkable five-goal spree in Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of Newcastle.

After failing to score in five league games, since netting against Chelsea in mid-August, Argentina forward Aguero claimed five goals in 20 minutes and 27 seconds at Eastlands on Saturday, making him just the fifth player in English Premier League soccer history to score five times and the fastest ever to record that feat.

Yet, after Aguero joined Alan Shearer, Andrew Cole, Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Berbatov in that exclusive group, City manager Pellegrini said there had been injury concerns about his star at the interval, at which point City were drawing 1-1 after Aguero claimed an equaliser late in the first half.

Pellegrini’s decision to send Aguero back out was rewarded in spectacular fashion before he came off after 66 minutes, denying him the chance to become the first player to score a double hat-trick in the Premier League era.

“We don’t know he can score more goals but we know he has a serious kick from Wednesday in Germany so maybe he can score one or two more but we have to have a precaution about his kick because he can be injured. He needed treatment at half-time,” Pellegrini said.

“Maybe it was very good treatment! He had a kick at the back of his hamstring and it was important just to relax him a little bit because he was not 100 percent comfortable.”

Aguero’s astonishing spree came at a time when he had been hinting that his goal touch was returning, finding the net from the penalty spot in the League Cup at Sunderland and in the midweek victory at Borussia Moenchengladbach. — AFP.