More injuries my ass. I lost Henry for 8 weeks deep into a Division 1 season. the week before he was supposed to come back I lost Totti for the remainder of the season (something like 12 weeks) in the WEFA Championship Semifinal. Luckily, I brought on olisadebe and he had two goals in the final for a win, but I caught the injury bug for sure!!
Best way to combat it is to keep fresh legs coming in and also have at least one real solid backup on the bench at each position (forward, midfield and defense). I usually will buy an extra "stud" at each position and keep them on the bench for such a situation (Olisadebe, for example, is at minimum a competent D1 striker). Plus, I have a lot of usable players with middling salaries (400-600) from when I was coming up the ranks that I kept on board because they can be counted on to spell the stars for brief periods. Remember, the bench can never be too deep!