Austria’s David Alaba returns to national team

Bayern's David Alaba is pictured at left (Kerstin Joensson/AP).

VIENNA — Austria midfielder David Alaba is returning to the national team for next week’s European Championship qualifier in Liechtenstein and a friendly against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Bayern Munich player missed the games against Russia and Brazil in November following knee surgery but has been included in the 23-man squad announced Tuesday by coach Marcel Koller.

Austria Vienna defender Markus Suttner also returned from knee problems, but Christoph Leitgeb and Rubin Okotie were missing with injuries.

Austria leads Group G with 10 points from four games, four points clear of Sweden and five ahead of Russia and Montenegro. Liechtenstein has four points.

Austria plays Liechtenstein in Vaduz on March 27 before hosting Bosnia in Vienna four days later.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.