Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk called up by Netherlands

Virgil van Dijk has been called up to the Netherlands squad, despite playing the full 90 minutes just once for Southampton in the last nine months.

The 26-year-old has been working his way back to full fitness following a spell on the sidelines with an ankle injury, which he sustained against Leicester City at the end of January.

Van Dijk started and finished the 2-1 defeat to Stoke City at the weekend, however, while also getting minutes under his belt against Crystal Palace last month.

Netherlands boss Dick Advocaat has now included the centre-back in his updated squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Sweden.

The Oranje currently trail leaders France by four points in Group A and are three behind Sweden in second ahead of the final batch of fixtures on the road to Russia.