Unai Emery fears central defender Tyrone Mings suffered a serious injury in Aston Villa's opening match of the Premier League season.
Mings was taken off on a stretcher after just 31 minutes of Villa's 5-1 defeat at Newcastle United after an innocuous-looking incident with Alexander Isak.
“The first analysis of the doctor is that it could be something important – hopefully not," head coach Emery told the club's official website.
“Tomorrow, we will scan him and wait for tomorrow.”
Unai Emery: "Today, we lost one match, we lost with a bad result, we lost in this week two players, but we are going to stand up and recover our power." pic.twitter.com/fJ5qihcILi
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 12, 2023
Former Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given is also concerned Mings's injury could be severe.
"I think it's a bad one," said Given. "He just stretches his knee. Sometimes these are the worst injuries. It's not anything Isak's done wrong. His knee's just flicked out."
It's another blow to Villa, who lost Emiliano Buendia to a significant knee injury sustained in training on Wednesday.
Mings was crucial to Villa last season, playing the second-most minutes of any outfield player and helping them finish seventh and qualify for Europe.
Emery's side will play Hibernian or Luzern in their UEFA Conference League playoff match, with the first leg on 24 August.
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Their next three Premier League matches are at home to Everton and away to Burnley and Liverpool.
The good news for Villa, though, is that summer signing Pau Torres was able to replace Mings, while Diego Carlos also came off the bench at Newcastle having recovered from an injury that ruled him out for the majority of last season.