Cheltenham Town will be without full-back Joe Tomlinson until at least January after he had surgery on a hamstring injury.

The 26-year-old went off early in the second half of the defeat by Accrington two weeks ago and it has been confirmed since that he has torn his hamstring tendon off the bone.

Manager Steve Cotterill said he expects Tomlinson to be out for 12 weeks.

"When he hurt himself in the first half at Accrington, he came in at half-time and he said he was fine and didn't feel anything, didn't feel any problems," Cotterill told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"So he went back out and when he went to strike the ball he could feel it straight away, which is why he went down.

"There was nothing on there to say you can't go out for the second half, he hasn't done any more damage by going out there the second half.

"He's pulled his hamstring tendon off the bone, he's had the scan and he's had the operation. The unfortunate side of that is he'll be out for 12 weeks, which is normal for those types of operations."

Tomlinson signed for the Robins from MK Dons this summer and has played in nine league games so far, starting eight of them.