The Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara truth Aston Villa must accept
Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara could return to Aston Villa's matchday squad this afternoon after Unai Emery delivered the brilliant news that both players have completed their rehabilitation programmes.
Mings and Kamara returned to full training at Bodymoor Heath earlier this season and each played 45 minutes against Newcastle Under-21s in the Premier League 2 at the start of October. They also featured in a friendly against Sheffield Wednesday and are now in line to make their return to first-team football.
If both are included in the squad to take on Fulham, it will be 434 days since Mings last featured in the Premier League, while its 251 since Boubacar Kamara suffered his ACL injury against Manchester United back in February. Mings has taken nearly twice as much time as Kamara to return to fitness and it's crucial that Emery manages both players due to their serious nature of their injuries.
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Villa currently have a fully-fit squad - excluding back-up goalkeeper Robin Olsen - so there's no need to rush Kamara or particularly Mings back to action. Villa play seven games in all competitions until the November international break, so while Emery will need to rotate his team, the risk involved with overloading Mings and Kamara so soon after they return to the squad simply would not be worth it.
Of course, the medical team will also advise Emery on how many minutes Kamara and Mings are capable of playing in the coming weeks. Emery has himself acknowledged that both players need to build up their minutes before they can be relied on.
"They will need to play matches and they played a friendly match and with the Under-21s," Emery said. "Now they will play with us in official matches and feel comfortable.
"Every day now and every session we are doing together, they are really feeling comfortable and confident. But they will need to play matches and official matches to get minutes, maybe tomorrow, maybe Tuesday. The first thing is that they are now available."
Emi Buendia suffered his ACL injury just days before the start of the last campaign and he has taken a little time to get back up to speed after returning to full training before the end of the season. The Argentine featured across pre-season, but has only made a handful of appearances across three league games so far this term.
He scored the opening goal in Villa's 2-1 win over Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup last month and also bagged a brace in the win against Fleetwood Town in the EFL Trophy. He, Ross Barkley and Jacob Ramsey were all given the chance to get minutes under the belt.
Despite both players playing crucial roles in Emery's side before their injury setbacks, Villa fans should not be expecting Mings and Kamara to be able to operate at their best for some weeks yet.