Unai Emery insists Tyrone Mings knee injury is ‘not big' before Celtic meeting
Unai Emery has allayed fears over another lengthy absence for Tyrone Mings after the Aston Villa defender's distraught reaction to his latest knee injury against West Ham on Sunday. Emery even floated the idea of Mings facing Celtic in the Champions League on Wednesday, only to be contradicted by the Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey.
Mings was in tears as he exited early in the 1-1 draw with West Ham. The 31-year-old has been troubled by persistent knee problems, including two anterior cruciate ligament injuries. Understandably, onlookers – and the England international himself – feared the worst on Sunday.
'It is not a big injury,' said Emery, the Villa manager, of Mings' condition. 'But every day is going to be important to see if he feels better or worse. When we play lots of matches, this is the difficulty we have.'
Mings was not pictured at the pre-Celtic training session on Tuesday afternoon, despite Emery planning to assess him there. 'We are going to decide how every player is feeling,' said Emery. 'We have Lamare Bogarde in the squad as well, he is training every day and competing very well. Sil [Swinkels] is another option because he is training with us, but we are thinking of letting him leave on loan. I think he will need more experience to get minutes.
'We have enough players to compete and feel confidence. For example, Lucas Digne is left-footed and is an experienced player. He can feel confident [playing at centre-back]. Firstly, if Tyrone Mings is available then he could play, but if not, Bogarde – who has usually played in midfield – he is training sometimes as a centre-back. I am confident and I believe in the squad we have.'
Ramsey appeared to dismiss the notion of Mings facing Celtic as Villa try to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League without the need for a playoff. Celtic's playoff place is already secure. 'When he came off, you could see how devastated he was,' said Ramsey. 'He is a big character, a big leader so it is also good news that it is only a couple of weeks, and hopefully he can get back into the team.'
Meanwhile Emery was effusive in praising Celtic and their manager Brendan Rodgers. To his credit the Villa manager refused to mention the scorelines – 5-0 and 7-1 in Emery's favour – from his time facing Celtic when he was in charge of Paris Saint-Germain. 'They are a winning team and they have a winning mentality,' Emery said. 'They are used to winning every week in the league. They have experience, international players, and they will be feeling confident coming here to face us. They will feel they can get close to us in terms of performance.
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'I have analysed them and they are in this position because they have a good coach and good players. They have players who now feel like Champions League players. We will need to be ready for that at the start of the match. I have analysed them and watched their matches in this competition. I have no doubt they will come here trying to beat us.'
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