I can only think of LND being injured in the warm up v Boro which has cost a player time away when not as a result of match day contact.
Young Embleton broke his ankle in an inoccuse challenge against Blackpool
The list is endless this season and a massive factor in last nights result
Bringing players back before they’re ready is also a stupid idea.
Agreed, it's more likely that they will breakdown again in the future. Look at Craig Gordon as an example, or Ricky Alvarez who should never have been signed until he'd had the operation to fix his knee problem. There's a huge difference between being 90% fit and 70%. At 70% you can take part in training and maybe play for a few minutes, but even if it's not the main injury that causes problems, you can develop other issues compensating for it the longer you play.
In the end the injuries, especially at the back, cost us. The games came just too early for Ballard and Alese to be really effective and although Alese played last night, it wasn't worth setting him back if he picked up another knock playing the full game.