The centre-back has opened up on the full extent of the knee injury which kept him sidelined for more than 14 months and thanked supporters for helping him through the darkest periods of his recovery.
Mings underwent three surgeries in the space of three months after damaging ligaments in his right knee on the opening day of last season, before starting a gruelling rehab process which included three trips to a specialist in the USA.
He made his first Premier League appearance in nearly 16 months in Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Brentford and then explained how his struggles had given him a fresh perspective on football and life.
Mings said: “(There were) times when I genuinely did think I would not be able to recover from this knee injury, such was the severity of it and the complications with it.
“When I think of where I have been, bad days in football don’t seem too bad.”
Asked if he had feared his career might have been over, he replied: “Yeah, though not with any fatalism.
“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.”
Mings previously suffered a knee ligament injury in his left knee while playing for Bournemouth in 2015 and asked to describe the recovery process, he continued: “Awful, absolutely awful. But I’ve done it before and I did it again.
“I was always wondering what was keeping me going, whether it was nights like tonight, family or personal pride.
“It was a little bit of everything, that when times get tough you ask, what am I still doing this for?
“I really enjoyed Wednesday and definitely being back at Villa Park was one of the things where I was thinking, wow, imagine the night?
“That was certainly a big part of it, that and the fans and the messages I had from them, was really heartwarming and played a big part.
“I thank the Villa fans for that, honestly I do because the roar when your name is called out and all of those things add up to my journey back and the feeling of we are in this together. Wednesday was a good feeling.”
Mings, who thanked Unai Emery and his staff for their support during his recovery, spent extended time with renowned rehab specialist Bill Knowles near the latter’s base in Philadelphia.
The 31-year-old, who has made more than 160 appearances for Villa since first joining the club on loan in early 2019, explained how the lowest point of his journey came in April this year just prior to his final trip to the US.
Mings said: “The journey was very stop-start, stop-start.
“Right up until October and November of last year I was still having operations to get the knee right, so the rehab didn’t really start until that point.
“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.
“That is why I say you have to draw on every part of internal and external motivation you have.
“There are different days and different things. Sometimes when you are away from home, away from family - I had a lot of time in America - you think if the family think I can do this, then I sure as hell will keep turning up every day and doing the work.
“You have good days, bad days, good hours, bad hours.
“But I am a big believer in visualisation. I played Wednesday over in my head many, many times before.
“So when you step back out there I feel very comfortable and like I have never been away because of the mental work I have done before.
“It also means I have seen way worse in the last 16, 17 months than bad days in football, which means I can contextualise it a little bit and means I am very calm after a loss of bad performance.
“I’m fairly calm after a win as well. I think it allows me to take football with a very clear focus and think this is what I have worked for and on to the next one.”
The next one is at home to Southampton tomorrow and though Mings is likely to see his minutes managed for the time being, his performance against Brentford will have given Emery a selection headache.
“Two months ago, he needed to train two days and one stopping to feel good and strong in his knee again,” said the Villa boss.
“But in the last month, he’s being consistent, not stopping and playing some matches. He played Champions League, he played Carabao Cup and now again Premier League. We are very happy for him.”