Tyrone Mings in confident mood ahead of Aston Villa return

The England international centre-back has not played since injuring the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee at Newcastle on the opening day of last season.

Mings underwent three operations before embarking on a gruelling rehabilitation but is now close to a comeback, after playing 45 minutes for Villa’s under-21s last weekend.

The 31-year-old’s focus is on regaining his match sharpness in order to deal with the demands manager Unai Emery places on Villa’s players.

Speaking to the Ben Foster podcast, Mings said: “There is no time to not be good enough under this manager. But that is not something you should feel pressure about.

“I think that is what will keep driving us forward. He has to keep signing good players and to keep evolving the squad and tactics. They are things he is doing all the time to keep us fresh."

Mings was in the best form of his career after Emery arrived in November 2022 and continued: “I don’t think I will be a different defender. I don’t think I will 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, get match sharp again. I have no doubt, if my knee holds up, I will get back to that level.”

Mings, who also featured in a midweek behind-closed-doors friendly against Sheffield Wednesday, described last week’s under-21s match as a “milestone” but said he felt no apprehension about returning to action.

He said: “Someone asked me the other day about how I felt and genuinely, had both centre-halves got injured going into the Bayern Munich game and the manager asked if I could play, I would have said I was fine.

“I probably would have been awful - but it just shows I don’t have any apprehension.

“Had I been asked to play the game at the weekend against United I would have felt fine to play. I would just be a bit unfit, the timing would probably be a bit off.

“I always say when I eventually play again and they see me on TV and I go in for a tackle and they worry about the knee, you have to realise I have done this loads of time before you see me do it.

“That is a culmination of many repetitions of trying it out first. It is not a case of throwing me into a game and see what happens.”

Mings previously injured the ACL in his left knee while playing for Bournemouth.

Discussing the difference in the respective rehabs, he said: “It has been different. It has been very challenging. This bit, getting back on the grass and playing football, should be the fun part. But there is always another challenge.

“It was November (when I had the third operation) and people were thinking he has been injured since August, he must be doing alright. But I had not even started rehab really.”