Aston Villa duo Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara reportedly featured in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Wednesday as they continue to step up their recoveries from injury.
While Mings hasn’t featured for us since suffering a serious knee injury in our opening game of last season, Kamara has been sidelined since February after sustaining a similar setback.
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Unai Emery and Villa have dealt with those major blows brilliantly in the time that has passed since as we’ve continued to make progress and raise our level, but ultimately there is no doubting that we’ve missed the influential pair given what they bring to the team.
Over recent months, we’ve continued to receive important updates as they close in on a return, and having featured for the U21s this past weekend for 45 minutes each, it was another significant step in their respective recoveries.
As per The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell, both Mings and Kamara participated in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Sheffield Wednesday in midweek, and so there is a sense now, provided that they came through unscathed, that they are on the verge of being back in contention at senior level.
Emery noted last month that this was the plan moving forward with the duo, with the idea that they would perhaps be available to make the matchday squad when we resume our season following the international break.
In turn, it will be fascinating to see if they are included in the squad for our clash with Fulham on October 19, as it will be a timely boost for us given the hectic schedule we have coming up as we try to compete on multiple fronts this year.
Mings will be a pivotal addition to the backline to help with rotating and resting Pau Torres as our left-sided centre-half, while Kamara’s influence in both phases has been badly missed as he is a key cog in Emery’s system and structure.
Both players will hopefully be getting their match fitness and sharpness back as they continue to step up their workload, and that will now potentially culminate in a Premier League return later this month off the bench, and possibly a start in our Carabao Cup clash with Crystal Palace on October 30, if all goes well between now and then.
Villa have been hit by multiple injuries again to start the season, but after Matty Cash returned last weekend, Jacob Ramsey, John McGinn and Amadou Onana are expected to be back in training over the break as we start to get a healthier group back together.
