SOUTHEND United midfielder Michael Timlin is expected to be out of action for five to six with a hamstring injury.

Timlin limped off just six minutes after his introduction as a second half substitute in Saturday’s 3-2 win against a young West Ham United side.

And Blues boss Phil Brown revealed Timlin would be joined on the sidelines by Anthony Wordsworth, who is expected to undergo surgery tomorrow on his own hamstring problem.

“I don’t like to focus on negatives from games but it’s obviously disappointing to have lost Michael Timlin to a hamstring injury,” said Brown, who said Timlin would be out for five to six weeks.

“We’ve already lost Anthony Wordsworth for the next five or six weeks as he’s having an operation on his hamstring injury tomorrow, so to also be missing Michael now is a big blow.

“We don’t know just how bad it is at the moment and we’ll have to see how it settles down.

“But it does look as though his hamstring has gone, which is obviously a blow for us because it means he is likely to miss the start of the season.

Timlin - who missed the final nine games of the previous campaign with a knee problem - had been looking to re-establish himself in the Shrimpers side this term.

But the 31-year-old will now have to wait for that to happen after suffering another injury setback which left Brown questioning the midfielder’s preparation.

“Michael hadn’t even been on the pitch for 10 minutes when the injury happened, so I do think you probably have to question the warm up,” said Brown.

“However, the one thing I do put it down to is the fact he’s going through a lot off the field at the moment with the death of his uncle.

“The FA say 80 per cent of soft tissue injuries come through stress but that could also have been caused by the running we’ve been doing.

“You always try and work out how and why injuries have happened but we’re very disappointed to have lost Michael like this.”

Wordsworth - who first suffered his hamstring injury in March - will now be out until at least September, leaving Will Atkinson and Ryan Leonard as Blues’ only fit senior central midfield players.