Tyrone Mings would be taking a huge sigh of relief as he takes a significant step on his road to recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament injury by starting a game for Aston Villa’s U21 side on Saturday.
The 31-year-old former Villa captain had been out of action since sustaining the injury in his right knee on August 12 last year in a 5-1 loss away at Newcastle, causing him to miss all but one of Villa’s games in the 2023-24 season but he could soon be back available to manager Unai Emery.
Mings was not the only overage player to start in Villa’s U21 clash with Newcastle on Saturday as midfielder Boubacar Kamara, 24, also returned from a lengthy absence caused by an ACL injury in February sustained during a 2-1 home defeat by Manchester United.
Both Mings and Kamara were taken off at half-time on Saturday in what were pre-planned substitutions.
Villa posted pictures of the pair in action on social media alongside the message: ‘An important 45 minutes in the tank for @TyroneMings & @boubaKamara_4’.
The score was 1-1 when Mings and Kamara made their exits. Ben Parkinson opened the scoring for Newcastle before Ben Broggio equalised for Villa.
But Villa went on to lose 3-2.
Travis Patterson put Villa 2-1 up early in the second half.
However, Cathal Heffernan headed the Magpies level and a penalty converted by Parkinson later completed the turnaround.