I set out to do some research to prove to myself why it was a bad idea to get Suckling and Thomas because I wanted to cross them off the watch list for good. The results were interesting but not conclusive.
I found 6 players from the past 2 seasons to compare with Suckers and Daisy. The 6 were all running players (not big men) and had season ending lower limb injuries: Gray, Ball, Lecras, Dempsey, Grimes and Hayes.
I looked at the full season average prior to their injury season and the season after (not including sub affected scores)
Gray: 90 (before), 92 (after)
Ball: 98, 99
Lecras: 86, 83
Dempsey: 77, 83
J Grimes: 88, 88
Hayes: 104, 104
I also looked at whether they start the next season slowly and improve, or start with a bang then taper off (again no subs included)
Gray: 82 (after five full games back), 93 (after ten games), 92 (season average)
Ball: 96, 100, 99
Lecras: 91, 80, 83
Dempsey: 92, 94, 83
Grimes: 83, 86, 88
Hayes: 113, 106, 104
What I learned from this:
1. You get almost exactly what the player produced in their previous season before injury. In this case it's Suckers 83, Daisy 96.
2. Whether they start fast or slow, they end up with roughly the previous seasons average by the end. Meaning if they come out straight away with huge numbers they will probably fall away at some stage and vice versa.
3. 5/6 of the above players had interrupted returns, missing/and or being sub in at least one of the first 6 games. The exception is Hayes and he is a star.
So the verdict....I don't really know lol. 6 isn't a big sample size. I'm thinking they won't be keepers, nor make enough cash, and will probably be managed early on. But who knows really? That's why we love it I guess!