Carlton may be forced to explore different treatments on Matthew Kreuzer's nagging foot injury if it fails to heal through rest.

The 24-year-old ruckman was a late withdrawal from the Blues side that lost to Richmond by 12-points at the MCG last night.

Kreuzer appeared to be over the foot issues which plagued him during the pre-season but the problem flared up again after Carlton's round one loss to Port Adelaide.

"He's still a bit sore from the previous week and we gave him every opportunity to be right for last night's game but he just didn't pull up," Carlton football operations manager Andrew McKay said on Friday.

"If we took his advice he would have played but the doctors said it was worth giving him a little bit more of a rest."

Kreuzer is set to resume some light running on Saturday and will look to build up his training load through the week in a bid to be fit for the Blues' clash against Essendon at the MCG on Sunday week.

However, if rest and a managed workload over the coming weeks don't have a positive impact on Kreuzer's foot, Carlton may be forced to look at other treatments.

"We will have to see how it goes," McKay said.

"We're confident he'll be right, and certainly he is confident which is the most important thing. We just have to see how it goes mid-week.

"He was feeling a bit of pain after the game but that's settled down now. We're just concerned that if we put too much load on it early on then it he will start feeling it again.

"Then you get the inconsistent performance I suppose when he gets on the field feeling alright to start with and then after a while not feeling all right with the dynamic movement in a game so we'd just rather get it right."