There were days when I wondered if I would ever play for Aston Villa again
Aston Villa centre-back Tyrone Mings was the man of the match against Brentford on his return to Premier League action on Wednesday night
Tyrone Mings has admitted there were times when he didn't think he would be able to recover from his knee injury due to the severity of it.
The Aston Villa centre-back made his first Premier League appearance in 480 days on Wednesday night, starting in the 3-1 win over Brentford. It was a long road back for Mings, who suffered his ACL injury on the opening day of last season at Newcastle United.
"Awful, absolutely awful," Mings said about his journey back. "But I’ve done it before and I did it again. I was always wondering what was keeping me going, whether it was nights like tonight, family, personal pride. It was a little bit of everything, that when times get tough you ask, what am I still doing this for?
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"You have good days, bad days, good hours, bad hours. Not too much really. But I am a big believer in visualisation. I played tonight over in my head many, many times before. So when you step back out there I feel very comfortable and like I have never been away because of the mental work I have done before.
"It also means I have seen way worse in the last 16, 17 months than bad days in football, which means I can contextualise it a little bit and means I am very calm after a loss of bad performance. I’m fairly calm after a win. I think it allows me to take football with a very clear focus and think this is what I have worked for and on for the next one.
"I really enjoyed tonight and definitely being back at Villa Park was one of the things where I was thinking, wow, imagine the might, when we win and keep a clean sheet, which we couldn’t do tonight. That was certainly a big part of it, that and the fans and the messages I had from them, was really heartwarming and played a big part.
"I thank the Villa fans for that, honestly I do because the roar when your name is called out and all of those things add up to my journey back and the feeling of we are in this together. Tonight was a good feeling."
Asked to elaborate on his struggles in the months following his injury, Mings said: "I just meant real tough times, like times when I genuinely did think I would not be able to recover from this knee injury, such was the severity of it and the complications with it. When I think of where I have been, bad days in football don’t seem too bad.
"I did not conclusively think 'this is it' but there were definitely days when I thought I have been banging my head against a brick wall for a few months and I have not seen any progress. When is something going to change? I never thought: ‘I am never going to play football again’. But there were certainly days when I thought, will I? If that makes sense.
"The journey was very stop-start, stop-start. Right up until October and November of last year I was still having operations to get the knee right, so the rehab didn’t really start until that point. There were a lot of setbacks so it was probably April I was thinking, I have pretty much exhausted all avenues of what I can do here.
"Honestly, the only thing you do in that situation is keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. That is why I say you have to draw on every part of internal and external motivation you have. There are different days and different things. Sometimes when you are away from home, away from family - I had a lot of time in America - you think if the family think I can do this, then I sure as hell will keep turning up every day and doing the work.
"I had about three stints out there of three or four weeks each, on my own. The guy rehabbed my left knee before, so I have a huge amount of faith in him. His name is Bill Knowles. He operates out of Philadelphia but not the centre, in a little village outside of there, so there is not much going on.
"It was just rehab really, two or three sessions a day and by the time you have finished that, there is not much energy left. But I like it, it was like a little camp mentality. Every time I went there I saw such huge changes. The Villa staff here were absolutely first class as well, especially the manager and the manager’s support staff and coaching staff.
"Because a lot of them have been through those injuries before they have been so, so supportive. As a collective we got through it, it is not just about me. I had some really good support while I was going through the journey as well. But to go back to tonight, it was a good evening to round it off."
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