Rory Fallon will be plunged straight back into action by Plymouth Argyle in tonight's pre-season friendly at Hereford United.

The Pilgrims' striker returned to training with the Home Park club's squad on Monday, after being given some time off in the wake of his exploits for New Zealand at the World Cup finals in South Africa last month. He will make his first appearance this summer for Argyle at Edgar Street this evening (7.45pm).

"He'll play tomorrow," Argyle manager Peter Reid confirmed yesterday. Reid has no worries about Fallon's readiness for action. "His basic fitness is still there, he just needs sharpening up," the Pilgrims' boss added.

Fallon's last taste of match action was for the All Whites against Paraguay in Polokwane, South Africa, on June 24. He revealed to the media on Monday that he has turned down approaches from other clubs since the World Cup. According to the Australian edition of Four Four Two magazine, the interest came from Chinese outfit Shenzhen and from Turkish top-flight team Konyaspor.

Fallon missed Argyle's training camp in the Netherlands last week. So did central defender Marcel Seip, who was on paternity leave, and left-back Onismor Bhasera. The Pilgrims were unable to secure a Dutch entry visa for the Zimbabwean.

Seip and Bhasera will also appear at Hereford. "They will both start tomorrow," Reid confirmed. The Pilgrims will not take Carl Fletcher (ankle injury), Karl Duguid (shin) or Réda Johnson (groin) to Edgar Street, however. All three men were hurt during the course of the Dutch expedition.

This evening's match will be the first of two friendlies in three days for the Pilgrims, who will be back in action at Queen's Park Rangers on Friday. The game at Loftus Road will be the last run-out for the Home Park club's full first- team squad before the beginning of the League One campaign at Southampton on Saturday week.

"I'll treat the two games as good fitness games," Reid said. "We've monitored how many minutes on the park the lads have had, and, as the game against Hereford goes on, I'll decide who needs it [more match action] and who doesn't. The QPR game will take care of itself after that."

Tonight's game will see the Pilgrims take on League Two opposition for the first time since July 13, when they played badly in a 3-1 defeat at Torquay United. "We were poor that day," Reid recalled.

"The games in Holland were good fitness games, because of the way their teams move the ball around the park. These games in England are more like what we'll be facing in the majority of the season."

Hereford are managed by former Barnsley boss Simon Davey, who brought a brief stay at Darlington to an end when he took over at Edgar Street last month. The Bulls' squad includes former Argyle striker Sam Malsom, who has played in the Faroe Islands and Iceland since leaving Home Park three years ago.