so, I think you need to bring back journeyman. I know the RR is an issue as is card farming, so Here is how you can get around it.
1. Journeyman always have niggling injury (+1 to injury) - now they are little bit of a risk, ( like old ones were with RR)
2. You can only hire journeyman upto your starting roster size. Ie you start 6 players, you can only every start with 6 players (or more if you buy them). so if you start with 6, you can only hire journey's to 6 when filling our for injuries.
My thoughts.