Aston Villa pre-season in full as two more fixtures are added including European trip

Aston Villa will travel to Walsall for their first friendly of the summer on Saturday, July 9, prior to flying out to Australia to begin their first-ever pre-season tour Down Under. Villa will head to the Poundland Bescot Stadium for a 1pm kick-off and, later that evening, will make the 10,000-mile trip to Brisbane to take part in the Queensland Champions Cup alongside Brisbane Roar (July 21, 10.45am UK-time) and fellow Premier League side Leeds United (July 17, 5.35am UK-time).

After that, Villa will then fly 2,600 miles across Australia to Perth to take on Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United at the 65,000-seater Optus Stadium. Today, meanwhile, Villa have confirmed their plans to round-off their pre-season with a fixture against Ligue 1 side Rennes at the Roazhon Park stadium. That match will kick-off at 6pm local time in France on Saturday, July 30, with the Premier League season beginning exactly a week later.

A Villa spokesman said: “Ticket details for both fixtures [Walsall and Rennes] will be announced in due course. Both matches will be streamed live on VillaTV+ with streaming details for all of Villa’s pre-season fixtures set to be announced in the coming weeks.”

Full squad return for pre-season testing and fitness drills at Bodymoor Heath

Walsall (a) at Poundland Bescot Stadium; kick-off 1pm

Australia training camp begins in Brisbane

Leeds United (a) at Suncorp Stadium, below, in Brisbane; kick-off 2.35pm local time

Brisbane Roar (a) at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Queensland; kick-off 7.45pm local time

Manchester United (a) at Optus Stadium in Perth; kick-off 5.45pm local time

Aston Villa squad return to Bodymoor Heath for final week of training

Rennes (a) at Roazhon Park; kick-off 6pm local