In extremely promising news, both Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara have appeared for Villa’s Under-21’s in a game against Newcastle’s youngsters today. Mings missed all of Villa’s 2023/24 campaign after suffering ACL injury in the club’s opening-day defeat to Newcastle last season. That injury came just days after Emi Buendia sustained the same injury in training. Kamara would go on to be the third ACL the club suffered, sustaining his in a February defeat to Manchester United in the Premier League.

ROAD TO RECOVERY

It’s been a particularly long road back for Mings, with the 31-year-old having been out for a lengthy 14 months. That’s a long time to not be playing elite level football and much has happened in that time. Mings was part of the side that improved drastically following Unai Emery’s arrival in B6 and which would go on to qualify for the Europa Conference League against all expectations in 2022/23.
Embed from Getty Images

As it transpired, Mings didn’t make it past the opening day away trip to Newcastle and wouldn’t feature as Villa continued to evolve, eventually finishing in 4th to reach the Champions League and only falling to defeat against Olympiacos at the semi-final stage. Emery was forced to bolster his side’s defensive options by moving to secure cover in the form of Barcelona central defender Clement Lenglet on a season-long loan.

Mings will be a welcome sight back in ...