QUEENS Park Rangers have announced that they will travel to Rodney Parade to take on Newport County AFC in a pre-season friendly on Sunday, July 26 (kick-off 2pm).

The London club, who were relegated from the Premier League this month, visit south Wales after an Italian tour.

QPR director of football Les Ferdinand told the club's official website: "Pre-season, as always, will be hugely important as we prepare for the new campaign, and we’ve managed to get a really decent schedule in place.

“The Italy training camp will be paramount for Chris and his staff to get to work with the players.

“We’ve arranged three good, competitive fixtures in Italy, before we come back and play three more in the UK, culminating with a friendly in front of our own supporters at Loftus Road, which – during my time as a player – I always thought was incredibly important ahead of the season starting.”

Former England internationals Rio Ferdinand, Joey Barton, Bobby Zamora and Shaun Wright-Phillips will not be heading to Newport after they were released by manager Chris Ramsey this week.

But current England squad member Charlie Austin is still under contract at Loftus Road.