Britain will make their sixth consecutive appearance at the Championships in August, and the six new players will join the likes of team captain Alan Ash, who will be looking to mark his twenty years of service for his national team with a strong showing.

GBWR chief executive David Pond said: "This is our first opportunity to properly test out the new squad at international level and will allow our head coach Paul Shaw and performance director, Lorraine Brown, to judge how the performance management system is working.

"Already it has paid dividends, bringing six strong new players into the squad and delivering heartening results in the preparation tournaments we have been playing in the run up to Antwerp."

Britain won the European title in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and go into the tournament as the top-ranked side in Europe, currently sitting in fourth position in the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) world rankings behind the United States, Australia and Canada respectively.

Great Britain captain Alan Ash will attempt to mark his twenty years of service to the side with a strong performance in Antwerp

Britain missed out on the chance to compete for a medal at London 2012 after defeats from the US and Japan in the group stages, and Shaw believes that getting back on track at the European Championships next month will be the perfect start to their preparations for the next Paralympic Games at Rio in 2016.

"I'm really excited about these Championships," he continued.

"This is the first important milestone in the new four year cycle and the road to Rio.

"It's a chance for us to show we have the ability to break into the top three in the world and these European Championships will be one of the first steps towards achieving our Rio goal."

The Great Britain squad for the wheelchair rugby European Championships in Antwerp from August 10 to 18 is as follows: Alan Ash (captain), Michael Kerr (vice-captain), James Roberts, Paul McDerby, Ayaz Bhuta, Mandip Sehmi, Christopher Ryan, Gavin Walker, Myles Pearson, Bulbul Hussain, Johnny Coggan and Muhammad Fukral Islam.

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