THE HAGUE - PSV have acquired defender Trent Sainsbury on a free transfer from Chinese club Jiangsu Suning, the Dutch soccer club announced on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Sainsbury signed a three-year deal in Eindhoven. The Australian international returns to the Netherlands after two years. He played 27 league matches for PEC Zwolle from 2014 to 2016.

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.