SWINDON Town star striker Jon Obika has been ruled out for up to 12 weeks.

The hitman damaged the joint at the top of his shoulder in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Barnsley.

Town boss Mark Cooper said after the game at Oakwell that he was fearing that the deadline day signing would be out for lenghty spell due to the injury.

The results of yesterday’s scan revealed the extent of the damage and ruled Obika out for as long as three months, with the player to seeing a specialist tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Cooper admits that he will face a difficult January if he losses three players to the Asia Cup.

With midfielders Massimo Luongo, Brad Smith and Yaser Kasim all being called up for international duty on a regular basis, the Town chief is fully aware of the hole that he will have to fill should the trio jet off to Australia in the new year.

All three players will be joining their respective Australian and Iraqi squads for friendlies next week, forcing the club to postpone next Saturday’s visit of Preston North End. While Town have brought in Amari’i Bell on loan from Birmingham City and Jake Reeves, the pair are only registered with the club until January should Cooper opt not to keep them beyond then he will have bring in new faces.

“It is going to be tough of course, but we will deal with that the way that we did, I’m sure if they do then we will deal with that and maybe bring somebody in,” Cooper told the Advertiser.

“We have brought Amari’i in to cover for Brad, we have got numbers, but it difficult to replace Mass and Yaser.”

Ryan Harley has started training with his former club Exeter City in a bid to maintain his fitness as he is deemed surplus to requirements at Swindon.

However, a move back to St James’s Park is not thought to be on the cards at the moment, with little or no money in the City playing budget available to bring in new faces.

However, manager Paul Tisdale admitted that he was happy to welcome Harley back to the Cat & Fiddle training ground - as he would any former player who wanted to return.

“He (Harley) is looking to keep fit for a possible move away from Swindon,” Tisdale told the Express and Echo in Exeter.

“We are such a close knit club that any of our former players are always welcome to spend time with us in any capacity, be that training or just being part of the club.

“That is an environment I’ve always wanted to create. Ryan is someone who gave so much to us when he was here that he is always welcome.”

Town have rearranged next Saturday’s Preston home match for Tuesday, November 4.