Decline after Injuries

I've been playing FM for a few years now, but I'm having a problem as the decline after injuries seems to be more noticeable than ever. For example, I signed Steven Davis who is 28 and in his prime, and in Febraury he picked up a 3 month injury which ruled him out for the rest of the season. At the end of the season, I was told he is on the decline. This is not the only player this has happened too either. Is there anything I can do to stop this? Or is there a way I can get him back to where he was?

I had a young winger who damaged his cruciate ligament - out for 10 months. He deteriorated hugely, but half a season later was back to and indeed better than his former self. Just give Davis some time.

Give them time, but some players simply don't recover fully. Take Charlie Davies for example. He was playing in Ligue 1 with Sochaux, and got in a horrific car accident while on national team duty. He got loaned out to D.C. United when he was physically recovered, but they don't even want him back next year.

I agree with op - decline is massive for minor injuries. I can understand when it's a serious injury but my example was just a 2 month injury. I haven't yet upgraded to 12.0.4 - is it still the same on that?

Fernando Torres is another example that springs to mind.

Sometimes they can get back quickly to the level they were at before, sometimes it takes a little while longer, sometimes they get back physically but never get the form/confidence back.

I'm a little reassured that it's possible given time that you can get a player back to a similar level as before injury. And even if the player sometimes doesn't get back to that level, it's still quite realistic.

I still feel it impacts on the game negatively though because the AI doesn't seem to realise that players can return to near their previous level and it means that players who get injuries and are out for more than a few months have a real chance of being surplus to requirements by the time they are back. Especially at a big team where the level of the other players is high.

On my game for example, Robben, Essien, Torres and Sagna have all been transfer-listed after season 1. Essien starts injured, Robben and Torres get injured regularly and Sagna was an ever present for Arsenal up until Jan, got injured for 2 months, came back and then got transfer-listed.

That's my one and only gripe on what is otherwise a brilliant game.

Give them time, but some players simply don't recover fully. Take Charlie Davies for example. He was playing in Ligue 1 with Sochaux, and got in a horrific car accident while on national team duty. He got loaned out to D.C. United when he was physically recovered, but they don't even want him back next year.