Eindhoven, Aug 8 (IANS): PSV have acquired defender Trent Sainsbury on a free transfer from Chinese football club Jiangsu Suning, signing a three-year deal with the Australian international.

The 26-year-old Sainsbury returns to the Netherlands after two years, it was announced on Tuesday. He played 27 league matches for PEC Zwolle from 2014 to 2016, reports Xinhua news agency.

Sainsbury left Zwolle for Chinese club Jiangsu Suning and had loan spells with Italian side Internazionale and swiss side Grasshoppers in the past two seasons. He represented Australia at the past World Cup in Russia and collected 38 caps in total for his country so far.

With the departure of Joshua Brenet (to Hoffenheim) and Santiago Arias (Atletico Madrid) Dutch champions PSV needed defensive reinforcements.

After Nick Viergever (from Ajax), Angelino (from Manchester City) and Denzel Dumfries (from sc Heerenveen) Sainsbury is the fourth new defender in the squad for the 2018/2019 season, which starts for PSV with a home match against FC Utrecht on Saturday August 11.