Sky Sports Tyrone Mings exclusive interview: Aston Villa star on overcoming injury and errors as he talks exciting times at Villa Park.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings discusses his recovery from injury and the exciting season ahead at home and abroad.Watch Nottingham Forest versus Aston Villa live on Sky Sports Premier League on Saturday from 5pm (kick-off 5.30pm).
Tyrone Mings sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the first game of the season, and no one needed to tell him it would be a hard journey back. Unfortunately, the Aston Villa and England defender has done this before. It wasn’t pretty.
Mings ruptured his anterior and medial ligaments minutes into his Premier League debut against Bournemouth, where he had recently been the club’s record acquisition. That was about a decade ago, and it threw Mings into a deep depression.
He has subsequently told of how he sought consolation in booze, was obsessed by the sense that he had lost everything, and how the prospect of a life without football threatened his entire identity. He described how he burst into tears at Eddie Howe’s office.
This time, older and wiser, he would tackle the problem quite differently. “It’s been strange. I wouldn’t say it has been easy. It’s simply that I have a bit more perspective. Mings tells Sky Sports that having children always helps.
“When I was at Bournemouth, it was a really uncertain period. I was still trying to find my way into the game and convince the supporters that I would be a good signing. So the timing of it was really tough to accept. This period has been tough for a variety of reasons.
“I thought I was playing well until I got hurt. I felt like I was attempting to establish myself inside the manager’s vision, and the team was performing well. So it was difficult to sit back and watch others build on all of our hard work over the years.”
Mings now has a regimen that involves regular communication with his therapist, which helps him stay in the correct frame of mind. His extracurricular activities no longer serve a negative purpose. That energy has been successfully channeled in a beneficial manner.
“Every waking minute was spent trying to figure out how I’m going to get my knee better,” he tells me. But there is his involvement with the Tyrone Mings Academy in Bristol, helping to provide fun opportunities for children in the region. And new interests.
He completed a worldwide football business management course with the PFA. “I have really learned about what it means to be a sporting director or a CEO so they will not be new things when I retire. “I am not afraid of what comes after football.”
Nor should he be. Mings has always been an excellent spokesperson, whether explaining why players took the knee in protest of racism or refuting then-health secretary Matt Hancock’s comments that athletes should give back more.
He’s 31 years old and exudes confidence and poise. Success will come after retirement. But he still has objectives on the football, and he is lucky that while he was away injured, Villa continued to grow under Unai Emery.
The squad he returns to is one that not only competes in the Champions League, but thrives in it, while still maintaining their position near the top of the Premier League standings. As a result, motivation for Mings is simple. New opportunities keep popping up.
“People are constantly seeking for new ideas and stimulation, so the Champions League has obviously changed the atmosphere surrounding the club. You see it for the supporters at Villa Park and away games. It’s definitely a distinct vibe, and the players notice it as well.
“It didn’t really motivate me through recovery because it felt so far off from where I was at the time. I still had a lot of obstacles to conquer before returning to the football pitch. But now that I am here and a part of it, it is a unique point in the club’s history, and it adds something.”
It has been an incredible journey for Mings, who was released by Southampton as a teenager, with his mother writing to every team in the Football League in the hopes of kickstarting his career, only for him to advance the hard way with stints at Yate and Chippenham.
Maybe it makes it even more precious for him when the Champions League song starts. He has 18 caps for England and will compete in Euro 2020, but Europe’s greatest club tournament remains a high point on his path to success.
It is true for several of Villa’s senior players. Ollie Watkins progressed through Exeter City’s youth before making his Premier League debut at the age of 24. Emiliano Martinez was still playing for Reading at the age of 26. One wonders whether this is one of the secrets to their success.
“There are a few individuals with a lot of Champions League experience, but we are new as a squad, a collective, and doing it together. Many of the players have also bought into the adventure that we have been on for quite some time.
He discusses winning a trophy with Villa. “Big on everybody’s to-do list here.” And the belief that they can “achieve something special together” – describing this as a “exciting time” and expressing a desire to recreate Villa’s previous magnificent triumphs.
Last month, he made his Champions League debut. It was an unlucky one, as he picked up the ball by mistake and conceded the penalty, which Club Brugge converted for the game’s lone goal. Emery described it as one of the worst blunders he has seen in sports.
A major injury occurred on his Premier League debut. A terrible mistake in his Champions League debut. Life continues to hurl things at him. “If something is going to happen, it usually happens to me,” he claims, asserting that the miscalculation did not harm him.
“I don’t engage in the game’s emotional highs and lows. I am quite calm and unflappable, I believe, when it comes to riding those feelings.” He then says something very illuminating about his current thought process.
“I was not irritated by what occurred, since errors happen. And I believe if it was going to happen to anyone, I’m glad it happened to me because I’m fairly confident I can handle it. After that, I believe my next game was against Brentford.”
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