Nelson Oliveira left with gruesome facial injuries after opponent stomps on his face

Aston Villa left-back Tyrone Mings has issued an apology to Aston Villa striker Nelson Oliveira after inadvertently stepping on his face.

The incident occurred as Mings and Oliveira were tussling for the ball, before the striker fell to the ground.

After Oliveira fell, Mings attempted to chase the ball and inadvertently stepped on the striker's face, leaving him with blood seeping from his forehead.

Following the match, which finished in a 0-0 draw, Mings took to his personal Twitter account to issue an apology to the 27-year-old.

"Absolutely loved wearing the claret and blue today and over the moon with the clean sheet!" Mings tweeted.

"Feel awfully sorry to Oliveira, I hope he is ok."

Mings escaped any sanction from the referee during the match, but following the incident, fans slammed the defender and cited an eerily similar previous incident.

The previous incident came in 2017 when the then-Bournemouth defender stepped on Manchester United star Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Despite Mings protesting his innocence, he was hit with a five-game ban for the incident.

After Oliveira was forced to depart from the game due to the gruesome injury, he was taken to hospital.

Reading later confirmed through a Twitter post that the Portuguese forward was "fully conscious".