(Reuters) - Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings will miss Saturday's Premier League match against Sheffield United with a hamstring problem, manager Dean Smith said on Friday.
The England international centre back sustained the problem early in last Sunday's 4-1 defeat by Leicester City and carried on playing before being substituted in the 23rd minute.
"He hasn't trained. Thankfully, it's not in the belly of the hamstring," Smith told a news conference. "If it's a hamstring you want, that's the best one.
"Against Leicester, he was adamant he wanted to carry on and believed he was OK."
The 26-year-old has started all 16 league matches for 17th-placed Villa and any prolonged absence will be a blow for the promoted club with a busy run of fixtures on the horizon.
After Saturday's trip to Bramall Lane, Villa take on fellow strugglers Southampton, Norwich City and Watford in the league this month.
They also face Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the League Cup on Dec. 17.
"Hopefully he (Mings) will be pain-free after this weekend and can keep progressing, but each individual is different in terms of getting back to fitness," Smith said.
Villa are outside the bottom three on goal difference, while the eighth-placed Blades are looking for consecutive Premier league wins for the first time since 2006.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
