Aston Villa centre-back Tyrone Mings suffered a horrific injury just 30 minutes into his side’s first Premier League game of the season against Newcastle United on Saturday.
Mings went into a challenge with Newcastle striker Alexander Isak in the 30th minute and immediately went to ground. It appeared to be a knee injury as the medics attended to the defender.
The medics took their time but the scene became increasingly worrying when a stretcher had to be brought on to take the former Villa captain off the field as he was left in tears. Many worried this could result in a lengthy spell out for the player while the player looked in severe discomfort.
New signing Pau Torres came on to replace Mings but the day got even worse for the Villans as they suffered a huge 5-1 loss to the Magpies. Manager Unai Emery after the game said that Mings’ injury is even worse than the result itself.
Emery, when asked about the injury, just said: “It doesn’t look good,” and also mentioned the loss of Emi Buendia saying: “We have lost two players and they are very important players. We have to analyse.”
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Losing Mings through a speculated ACL injury could be a huge blow for Villa this early on in the season. The 30-year-old was one of the first names on the team sheet last season for Emery as they managed to finish 7th in the league. His leadership and experience are also important assets that the team could now be missing for a lengthy period of time.
Villa also require strength in depth this season as they will be competing in Europe and begin their European campaign as early as August itself with the UEFA Conference League qualifiers on the way. It remains to be seen if they will go back into the transfer market to find a replacement for Mings.
Given Torres’ quality, there may not be a drop in quality in the first team. The Spaniard is also familiar with playing in an Unai Emery team, having done so at Villarreal. But there is still no doubt that the manager would not have wanted to lose his most experienced first-team player to injury in the first game of the season.
Villa now face Everton at Villa Park next weekend and will have to pick themselves up after a disappointing start to their Premier League campaign. They will also be without one of the most influential leaders in the squad.
Moussa Diaby’s goal on his debut for the club stands to be the only positive that came out of Saturday’s fixture for the Claret and Blues.
