Aston Villa were handed an important boost on Saturday as both Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara featured for 45 minutes for our U21s side in their comebacks from injury.
While Mings has been sidelined for around 14 months after suffering a serious knee injury in the opening game of last season, Kamara hasn’t been available to Unai Emery since February after sustaining a similar problem.
Although Villa have continued to progress and improve in their absence, there’s no doubt that their presence has been missed on and off the pitch since they were ruled out, and so it’s going to be a fundamental boost for all concerned to have them back in contention and pushing for a return to action.
They both took an important step towards that happening this weekend, as they started for our U21s side in our Premier League 2 meeting with Newcastle Utd at Bodymoor Heath, and as per the club’s post below, both Mings and Kamara featured for 45 minutes before coming off at half-time.
It’s a plan that Emery revealed a week ago with the expectation now being that the Villa pair will continue to train with the rest of the group over the international break, and they’ll hopefully be back in contention when we face Fulham on October 19.
Naturally, there will be a gradual and patient process in reintegrating them, as while they might make the matchday squad from that point onwards, Emery will undoubtedly slowly build up their involvement until they’re at a point where they can feature consistently and for an extended period in games.
We’ve seen a similar approach with Emiliano Buendia after he made his comeback last month, and with our Carabao Cup clash with Crystal Palace coming up on October 30, that could very well be the perfect opportunity to hand either Mings or Kamara, or both, a first start at senior level since they suffered their injuries.
Villa will play four games in the space of 11 days across all competitions to end the month, and so that in itself reiterates the importance of having strength in depth, as Emery will need to start rotating and resting key players in order to sustain our push for success this season.
With that in mind, Mings and Kamara will make a vital difference with their experience, leadership and quality, and it was great to see them back out on the pitch and edging ever closer to completing their recoveries and getting back to being at Emery’s disposal for selection.
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