Centre half Tyrone Mings has not played for Aston Villa’s first team since August 2023. A knee injury, sustained on the opening day of the season at Newcastle, sidelined him, affecting his entire campaign. Preparations are still being made for Mings to return under manager Unai Emery’s guidance. His goal is to challenge teammates Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, and others for a starting position once he is fit. Meanwhile, Mings approaches his recovery with humility and insight, gained from the challenges of a second ACL injury.
Tyrone Mings said, “I don’t think I’ll be any different going back into the team. I don’t put that much pressure on myself because I know how I was playing before I got injured. You hear people say, ‘Will he still be the same player?’. That is not for them to worry about. That is for me to worry about. I am going to have to do that work. I am going to have to get fit and get match sharp again. I have no doubt, if my knee holds up, I will get back to that level. I feel good, I feel fine, the knee is holding up, the body is a little tired but I feel in a good place. I’ve had an even worse time with this one than I did with my first knee injury. It’s been tougher, but also I’m in a different place in my career. I’ve achieved more, played more, done more, so I place less expectation on myself. When I did my left knee at Bournemouth, I wanted to do interviews with the club and update people on social media about what I was up to every day—basically so as not to forget about me. This time, I’ve done slightly longer videos, giving fans who are messaging me a lot an update of how I’m getting on and speaking openly to camera about the challenges you face. This should be the fun part. Getting back on the grass and playing football should be the fun part, but there’s always another challenge. If both centre halves had got injured before Bayern Munich and the manager had said ‘Ty, I need you to play’, I’d have said absolutely fine. It probably would have been awful, but it just shows I don’t have any apprehension—if he’d asked me to play against United, I’d have been fine. I’d have just been unfit.”
