Rarely-seen Leeds United man earns surprise international call-up for friendly double-header
Leeds United defender Isaac Schmidt has won a first call-up to the Swiss national team despite not featuring regularly at club level this season.
The 25-year-old is named in manager Murat Yakin's squad for this month's internationals against Northern Ireland and Luxembourg as one of four newcomers.
Schmidt has played just 26 minutes of Championship football since arriving at Elland Road last summer with his game-time severely limited under Daniel Farke.
Nevertheless, Yakin has deemed Schmidt worthy of a first senior call-up and is likely to test out the defender during this month's friendly double-header.
Schmidt's last start came for Leeds in the 2-0 FA Cup defeat by Millwall last month. He is yet to be named in the starting lineup for a Championship match as Junior Firpo, Jayden Bogle and Sam Byram have all been preferred by Farke in the full-back positions.
The defender's inclusion comes as something of a surprise given his limited involvement on the club side of things but it appears Yakin wishes to trial alternative players from his national team pool during March's non-competitive fixtures.
Elsewhere on the international front, Ao Tanaka (Japan), Joe Rodon, Dan James, Karl Darlow (Wales) and Junior Firpo (Dominican Republic) have all been called up by their respective national sides.