Lee Tomlin best I ever played with says ex-Doncaster Rovers, Middlesbrough and Peterborough United teammate

Rovers were dealt a hammer blow last week with the news that talented Tomlin was hanging up his boots aged 33 due to injury.

The playmaker, whose ability took him to the Premier League with Bournemouth, looked on a different level to his opponents at times during his short-lived 10-game stint in a Doncaster shirt.

"We know we are going to miss his bits of magic,” admitted McSheffrey, who persuaded ex-Middlesbrough and Cardiff City ace Tomlin to give football one last go over the summer.

"It was about Lee’s mental health really and what he wanted to do. He felt he couldn’t keep doing what he was doing.”

Tomlin revealed he had been taking painkillers to get through training and matches and said it had “got too much.”

He added: “I have days when I can't pick my daughter up for more than two minutes. It's not a way I want to live.”

McSheffrey made Tomlin central to his plans in the first two months of the campaign and had granted him Mondays off as an extra rest day if there was no midweek fixture.

Despite suggesting he could not play week in, week out, McSheffrey used Tomlin in every league game he was available for.

He said: "Maybe that’s more than he’s had over the last couple of seasons and it’s taken its toll.

“I’m obviously gutted but my thoughts are with him.”

McSheffrey continued: "You try and persuade him initially, you remind him how good he was in his cameo at the weekend (against Crawley).

"Going forward, you can maybe offload him from time to time.”

Doncaster skipper and Tomlin’s former teammate Adam Clayton, who also played in the Premier League, with Middlesbrough, felt his friend and dressing room partner in crime was perhaps the best player he’s ever teamed up with.

"On pure ability you would put Tomo up there,” he said.

The pair first played together for Peterborough United, managed by Darren Ferguson, in the 2010/11 season along with Kieran Agard and Tommy Rowe.

Clayton planned to bid farewell after Saturday’s match against Leyton Orient, but wasn’t expecting tears.

He said: “We’re more banter-orientated, it will be along those lines rather than emotional.”