Quote: Mild Rover "I think he was indicating that we haven't had full value from the spend due to injuries, and so were effectively well under the cap. Obviously everybody has injuries, but he was indicating we need to make more of an effort to make sure future signings are durable. Easier said, like - IMO, a fair chunk of it is just luck, but I guess we'll be wary of older player, especially if their recent track record isn't good.'"
No not effectively under the cap but actually under the cap.
Some teams with long term injuries bring in replacements look at Hull last season they had loads of injuries but brought in several replacements like Watts, McGoldrick, Foster etc. The injured drop out of the equation the replacements take their place. The actual full year wage bill becomes far higher than the salary cap but at any given time only 25 players can be selected but the '25' are a shifting sand.
Less wealthy clubs like Rovers tend to cover injury crisis by utilising the £50k available to pay everyone outside the 25 registered players.
Rovers this year despite a crippling injury list have more or less made do apart from brief loan signings resulting in being a long way short of the cap. We did this because we couldn't afford not to.