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\u2019s\u00a0U21 side on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old former Villa captain had been out of action since sustaining the injury in\u00a0his 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.<\/p>\n
Mings was not the only overage player to start in Villa’s U21 clash with Newcastle on Saturday as midfielder\u00a0Boubacar 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.<\/p>\n
Both Mings and Kamara were taken off at half-time on Saturday in what were pre-planned substitutions.<\/p>\n
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’.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But Villa went on to lose 3-2.<\/p>\n
Travis Patterson put Villa 2-1 up early in the second half.<\/p>\n
However, Cathal Heffernan headed the Magpies level and a\u00a0penalty converted by\u00a0Parkinson later completed the turnaround.<\/p>\n
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