Giorgio Chiellini has been an amazing servant to Juventus for such a long time.

The centre back is already 36, but when he is fit, he is still fielded even if there are younger options available to Andrea Pirlo.

But you can only play football for so long and it seems that the end of Chiellini’s time as a player might not be too far off.

The defender has been having fitness issues this season and there is hardly a week that he doesn’t suffer one injury or another.

As we evolve under Andrea Pirlo, one key thing that is noticeable is that we have been bringing in younger players.

At the back, while we still have Leonardo Bonucci as a key member of the team, Merih Demiral and Mattijs de Ligt look like readymade replacements for him and Chiellini.

They were paired together at the back for the first time in our game against Cagliari, and they kept a clean sheet.

That game offered us a glimpse of the future and it wasn’t a bad one.

I think that the time has come for us to take the risk and sideline Chiellini while building a future partnership.

This shouldn’t exclude Bonucci, who can be paired with either of the younger options, but it should rely less on Chiellini who’s body might not allow him to play next season.