Injuries

An injured player cannot be selected until they recover. Injuries are counted in your club’s own matches, league and cup alike: a club that is out of the cup does not lose a cup date it never plays.

An injury does not end with the season. Whatever is left of it when the last match is played carries over, and the player misses that many of his club’s first matches of the next season.

When a player gets hurt

• Playing a match: injuries come from contact during the match itself, such as a foul, a fight for the ball or a shot under pressure, and they hit one of the players involved. Backs, pivots and their markers are in the thick of it far more often than wings or goalkeepers. Play stops, the paramedics help the player off, and a substitute comes on. The injury then keeps the player out of your club’s next matches, league or cup.
• Training: higher intensity raises the chance of injury during that week's training, and how long the injury lasts. On High, expect about three matches out, sometimes six.

Substitutes

In the Tactics tab you can name one substitute for each of the seven roles. When a player is injured during a match, the substitute for his role replaces him. If that slot is empty or already used, another substitute comes on instead, and a substitute goalkeeper is only used for an outfield role when nobody else is left. Substitute slots you leave empty are filled automatically from your other healthy players, and each substitute can come on once per match.

Playing short-handed

With no substitute left, the team carries on with fewer players. The more teammates are missing, the worse the remaining outfield players defend, and in attack the worse they find space and shoot. Their passing, technique, ball control and physical skills are unaffected. On top of that, the side with more players on court scores more easily and the side with fewer scores less easily, so a full bench matters. The team also closes ranks around the middle of the court. If the goalkeeper is the one missing, the outfield player best suited to it goes in goal. A match is never forfeited for injuries that happen during it.

While they recover

An injured player shows a red Injured badge and disappears from your Available list, so they cannot be picked. The badge says how many matches they still miss and which match they are back for. If they were in your saved lineup, a healthy stand-in covers their spot for every match until they are fit again, then they return to the lineup automatically.