Stoke City defender Philipp Wollscheid has played his way back into the Wolfsburg first team.

Wollscheid's handling of a difficult situation at Wolfsburg looks like it has been rewarded after being brought back in from the cold by new manager Andries Jonker.

He had played two matches for Wolfsburg's under-23s before being recalled to sit on the bench against Darmstadt and Bayer Leverkusen in the top flight. Wolfsburg take on Freiburg tomorrow and Wollscheid is ready to take the place of Luiz Gustavo (suspended).

Jonker said: "Philipp has taken a lot of trouble to do the right thing and trained well. I have confidence that he will be able to come in and do very well."