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Gillingham to play Premier League Crystal Palace at Priestfield next week; stars such as Wilfried Zaha could feature for Londoners after being left off tour

Gillingham will play a Crystal Palace XI in a pre-season friendly next Tuesday.

A mixed squad of Palace first team players who are not travelling on tour to Singapore and Australia will feature in the match alongside academy players.

Priestfield to host pre-season friendly between Gillingham and Crystal Palace next week
Priestfield to host pre-season friendly between Gillingham and Crystal Palace next week

It will be Gillingham’s fifth pre-season match of the summer and follows a home match against Portsmouth this Saturday (1pm).

Many of Palace’s first team players remain in the UK while their manager Patrick Vieira has taken a group on tour. Those without Covid vaccines have been denied entry to Singapore. They play Liverpool on Friday before heading to Melbourne to take on Manchester United and Perth to face Leeds United.

The club have said that: “The remainder of the first-team squad will be based in South London for a domestic training and games programme led by assistant manager Osian Roberts.

“Some of these players are not currently fit and therefore will not travel on tour, whilst some did not meet the entry requirements for Singapore or Australia when travel arrangements were made.”

Following their match with the Gills, the UK-based players will then take on QPR on Saturday. The likes of Wilfried Zaha and Eberechi Eze could be among those to face Neil Harris’ side next week.

On Wednesday the Gills played a behind closed doors friendly against Luton Town at the Championship side's training ground. That match finished 2-1 with Shaun Williams netting from a corner for the League 2 visitors after Luton had led 2-0 at the break.

Former Gills youngster Luke Freeman was in the Luton team having recently signed for the club.

It’s understood that trialists Henry Wise and Lewis Walker, who both played for the Gills in friendly matches at Folkestone and Dover have moved on to try their luck at fellow League 2 side AFC Wimbledon. They were reported to have featured for the Dons on Tuesday night in their game against Farnborough.

Gillingham’s match against Palace takes place on Tuesday, July 19 will kick off at 7pm. Tickets cost £12 for adults, £7 concessions, £5 for under-18s and free for under-14s with a full paying adult. The Premier League side are providing a streaming service of the match through their subscription based Palace TV+.

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