Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings admitted he questioned whether he would play football again after he made his first Premier League start in over a year in Wednesday's 3-1 win over Brentford.

The 31-year-old suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury for the second time in his career on the opening day of the 2023-24 season.

And 445 days later, Mings stepped out to compete in a Premier League match once again and helped Unai Emery's side end an eight-match winless run.

But in April, while Villa closed in on Champions League football, Mings endured his lowest point as he suffered setbacks on his complicated road to recovery.

"I think probably around April of this year (was my lowest point)," Mings said.

"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.

"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."