Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna is eyeing up a pre-season trip to Austria.

The Blues boss took his Manchester United U18s side to Obertraun - a lakeside village nestled in the Alps - during the summer of 2017.

He had been keen to take Ipswich there last summer, but in the end the club opted against a foreign trip due to logistical concerns linked to Covid regulations and the war in Ukraine.

Instead, Town had a training camp at Loughborough University - where McKenna once studied sports science - and played a programme domestic of games against Needham Market (a), West Ham (a), Crystal Palace (a, behind-closed-doors), AFC Wimbledon (a), Millwall (a) and Southend (h).

Asked whether Austria is a potential destination this July, McKenna said: "Yes, it's in our thoughts. There have been some plans in place for a few months, but we couldn't start rubber-stamping anything until we knew when our season was going to finish.

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"Now we know when we're going to start back (June 26) and we're just trying to confirm plans for a tour and friendlies. Nothing's 100% yet."

The Blues' last pre-season trip abroad was to Germany in the summer of 2019 prior to the pandemic, Paul Lambert's newly-relegated squad facing SC Paderborn and playing in the Interwetten Cup against hosts SV Meppen, Fortuna Dusseldorf and FC Utrecht.

Paul Hurst took Town to La Manga, Spain (2018), Mick McCarthy went to Dublin, Ireland several years in a row (2013-2017), while Paul Jewell oted for Holland (2011-12).

Due to the Portman Road pitch currently undergoing a multi-million pound major rennovation, Town will play all of their friendly matches away this summer.

It's also understood that the Blues are likely to request that the EFL schedules their opening league fixture of the 2023/24 season away from home - and hope that they are not handed a home tie in the first round of the Carabao Cup soon after that - to give themselves maximum time to get the stadium ready.

EFL rules state that such a request can only be submitted for the opening match.

The Championship schedule will be revealed at 9am on Thursday, June 22, with the season kicking off over the weekend of Friday, August 4 to Sunday, August 6.