A young talent that won the FA Youth Cup with Aston Villa has spoken for the first time about the attack that left him fearing for his life in 2020.
Aston Villa will be competing in the Champions League next season and one of their former players has ambitions in the competition of his own with Bodymoor Heath graduate Brad Young leading the line for TNS.
Welsh champions TNS drew 1-1 with Decic from Montenegro in the second-leg of the Champions League first qualifying round on Tuesday night, taking them through 4-1 on aggregate.
Young scored from the spot in the second-leg, having scored a brace a week earlier as TNS won 3-0 at home.
Villa bypass the Champions League qualification stages and will enter the competition at the group stages, but Young is lucky to be playing football at all after being stabbed three times four years ago.
Former Aston Villa ace Brad Young victim of stabbing in 2020
21-year-old Young had loan spells at Carlisle United and Ayr United before signing for TNS permanently last summer.
He has been a revelation in Wales, scoring 32 goals and providing four assists in 38 games in all competitions, but it could have been very different for the striker.
Young has been speaking to Mail Sport, where he opened up on the incident in summer 2020 that left him fearing for his life.
According to the report, Young was playing football in a local park with friends after an easing of Covid restrictions when he says: “I had a group of lads approach me and then tried to rob me. All I remember is one throwing a punch and then first instinct was to fight back and then I’m fighting with them.
“A lot of people came running over and I’ve got one guy in a headlock and I’m about to throw him to the floor so I can run off.
“As I’ve got him in a headlock I’ve just felt something weird from behind. I didn’t know what it was but I just knew it was weird.
‘I then looked down and just saw I was covered in blood everywhere.”
That ‘something weird from behind’ was a knife, as Young was stabbed three times; once in the hip and twice in his buttocks.
Young was rushed to hospital where he underwent surgery after losing a lot of blood and the TNS forward has revealed he thought he may not live to tell the tale, let alone play football again.
Young recalled: “I remember looking over to my mum and dad and saying, ‘I love you’.
“I remember thinking, hand on heart, that I was going to die. I lost a lot of blood, I was sweating and I genuinely thought I was going to die.”
Young recovered to score in FA Youth Cup final for Aston Villa
Fortunately, Young did make a full recovery and has been able to thrive in Welsh football.
The open wound meant the then-17-year-old was unable to train for four months, but this was a small price to pay for his life.
Remarkably, just one year one on from the incident, Young was on hand to score from the penalty spot to secure a 2-1 FA Youth Cup final win for Villa over Liverpool in May 2021.
Whilst no longer a Villa player, the club can be proud of the resilience and bravery Young has shown in telling his story as he forges a career in Wales.
Scoring goals for fun at 21, perhaps one day Young will make a return to Villa Park.
