I kind of like this idea. Make it very arcade-like.
INJURIES : ON / OFF
And the duration of an injury could be in number of games lost (the injury itself doesn’t even need any specificity, simply “David Wright injured for 7 games”).
What would be a realistic-but-balanced-and-still-fun random chance of an injury? 1 in 100? (9 players per game, 10 with DH = roughly one player injured every 10 games)
How would the game present the injury to the player? During a game, so we’d have to replace him on the spot? After a game? Before?
This would add some interesting depth but, then again, there would have to be some pretty good CPU logic for the other 29 teams to realistically/intelligently substitute for injured players.
The alternative would be for a Pro Evolution Soccer style “player form” mechanic, with the ⬆️ ↗️ ➡️ ↘️ ⬇️ symbols to indicate a player’s condition, but this would also introduce the complexity of variable player ratings (speed, contact, etc.) to the game.