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Albion star receives late recall and heads to World Cup finals

The Albion midfielder or right-back has forced his way into Ronald Koeman’s plans.

He joins Bart Verbruggen and Jan Paul van Hecke in the 26-man selection.

Wieffer has been used as a right-back by Seagulls boss Fabian Hurzeler for more than a year.

But he has been listed as a midfielder in the Holland announcement.

Koeman delayed his squad reveal, which was due to take place on Monday, by 48 hours.

He said: “This way we can be more certain that the players we are going to select have all come through the final phase of the competition well.”

Wieffer, capped 14 times, has not been part of the squad in any of the last four international windows but Hurzeler has been an advocate for him to be recalled, even to play as right-back.

Mats Wieffer joins Bart Verbruggen in the Holland squad (Image: Liz Finlayson)

Hurzeler said towards the end of the season: “He has a really good physicality, a good understanding of the game, he's improving in every training session and therefore I'm very pleased how he's working.

“He's there for the team, he's an absolute team player.

“I know that he prefers to play in the midfield area but he's doing so well as a right-back and therefore I'm really hoping that he receives a chance to play in this position for his national team, because I think that he absolutely deserves it.”

Holland have friendly matches against Algeria (June 3) and Uzbekistan (June 8).

They are in World Cup Group F with Japan, Sweden and Tunisia.

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