Six Kent players head to the Netherlands for two test matches against the World Champions this week as part of the GB squad.

The matches will both take place at Athena Hockey Club, Amsterdam as both sides step up their preparations for the Hockey Champions Trophy and the Olympics.

The team have their first match of the series at 7pm tonight and match two is set for 7:30pm local time on Thursday 2nd June.

There are returns to the squad for Laura Unsworth, Lily Owsley and Alex Danson who have all overcome recent injuries to take their places in the group.

There are some potential milestones for a number of players with St Albans forward Hannah Macleod in line to win her 50^th cap for Great Britain. The Olympic Bronze medallist currently has 49 Great Britain appearances to her name. Defender Sam Quek is poised to win her 100^th international cap (currently she has 99) whilst Captain Kate Richardson-Walsh needs just one goal to bring up her half century in international hockey.

The Netherlands, Coached by Alyson Annan are the current World and Olympic Champions and the FIH World No1 side. They are expected to have a squad of 24 players to choose from as they build towards the Hockey Champions Trophy where the two sides will meet again on 19 June.

Ahead of the series, Great Britain Coach Danny Kerry said:

“It is good to have Laura Unsworth, Alex Danson and Lily Owsley back after long periods of injury. It will be good to have competitive match play to help bring them up to match speed.”

“We will be using the two matches to look at two to three different combinations as we fine tune preparations for the Champions Trophy. The women have been excellent in their preparation for many months now and we’re looking forward to testing that against the number one ranked team in the world on their home soil.”

Full Squad for Netherland matches: