NEWPORT County boss Terry Butcher is fully confident he’ll have a tough selection dilemma in every position ahead of County’s trip to Cambridge United on August 8.

The Argus can reveal that Butcher is so keen to ensure he picks up no further injuries before the big kick-off, that the Exiles have now dropped plans to stage a final pre-season friendly next weekend.

Butcher has had upwards of TEN players unable to train or feature in pre-season clashes so far this term, with a standing room only situation greeting new physio Gary Aldridge on his arrival to County’s medical department.

The former Cross Keys physio, who has worked extensively in the NHS, has been tasked with ensuring those players feature at Cambridge in County’s first League Two game of the season.

So far Danny Holmes, Nathan Ralph, Matt Taylor, Seth Nana Twumasi, Kevin Feely, Regan Poole, Alex Rodman, Yan Klukowski and Scott Boden have all suffered knocks or niggles while defender Andrew Hughes remains a long-term absentee. However, only Hughes is expected to be unavailable for Cambridge.

“Other than Andrew Hughes, we don’t have a single player I would rule out for the start of the season,” he said.

“We may have players missing on Sunday, but we’ve been aiming for having everyone available for August 8, then it has been a good pre-season. And we are bang on course for that.

“If we are only without Andrew Hughes on the first day of the season I will consider that to have been a successful pre-season.

“We at one point were working extremely hard to arrange a friendly for next weekend, but I think we are probably better off not filling that now.

“We have a fantastic game to prepare for and a good trip to Weston on Tuesday, so that’s what we are focusing on.”

The Exiles welcome a full-strength Queens Park Rangers side on Sunday at Rodney Parade, a contest Butcher believes will benefit his side hugely as the likes of England internationals Rob Green and Charlie Austin strut their stuff on Parade.

“We are really looking forward to facing QPR, it’s a great game for us, it really is,” Butcher said.

“We are picking up the pieces injury-wise, but you can tell the players are excited about this game, they are talking about it a lot.

“You want to play in this game, its players who played in the Premier League last season, so it’s a mouth-watering contest for us.

“Our players have a big desire to play and we’ll look to give everyone who is fit some minutes, because they will want to play against Queens Park Rangers.”

And Butcher is looking forward to his return to Rodney Parade, having only attended the final game of last season as a spectator and seeing it on Thursday when Newport took their team photo.

“I saw it at the end of last season and haven’t seen it since but the pitch is looking magnificent it really is,” he said. “Although it is looking far too good for rugby!

“I’m joking there, before I get any complaints, but any sportsperson would love to play on this pitch.

“I’ve seen both sides of it, as we have our training base at Spytty Park. I think Spytty Park was an important home for this club, but Rodney Parade is brilliant, it’s great. It’s lovely being at the heart of the city.

“And the staff have done a fantastic job with the pitch. The pitch is superb.”