Argentinian midfielder Luciano Civelli will finally return to action for the first time in 16 months on Tuesday when manager Roy Keane takes a strong squad of 22 players to Newmarket Town for the first friendly of pre-season (KO 7.45pm). Civelli has been out of action since damaging knee ligaments in the home game with Burnley in March 2009.
Keane told the club site: "It's good that Luca is back with us and out on the training field.
"The boy has had a bad injury and he's had to be patient. He still has a long way to go yet, but he's making progress and that's obviously good news for Luca and for the football club."
Town will field a different side in each half at Newmarket with only a couple of first teamers likely to be missing. The squad returned to training last Monday with only Tommy Smith absent, the New Zealand international having been given an extra three weeks off after his exploits at the World Cup.
Keane added: "The players have had a good break and we're looking forward to getting going now.
"Our pre-season will be a lot more settled than last year and hopefully the players we brought in will have a better start to the season than they did last year."
Tickets for the Newmarket game are priced at £6 for adults and £3 for children. Details of how to get to Newmarket's Cricket Field Road ground can be found here.
A full list of Town’s pre-season fixtures can be found here. The planned match at Southend on Friday could be cancelled.
Squad: Jack Ainsley, Troy Brown, Alex Bruce, Luciano Civelli, Pablo Couñago, Damien Delaney, Carlos Edwards, Owen Garvan, Colin Healy, Luke Hyam, Grant Leadbitter, Arran Lee-Barrett, Lee Martin, Gareth McAuley, Brian Murphy, David Norris, Shane O'Connor, Jaime Peters, Tamás Priskin, Alan Quinn, Jon Stead and Jon Walters.