After spending five years as a backup in Turin, Daniele Rugani decided to leave the nest last summer, when he joined Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais on loan from Juventus.

Unfortunately for the former Empoli defender, his French adventure is going as smoothly as he was hoping for, as he’s only been able to make one league start so far.

Although injuries didn’t help the Italian to participate on more occasions, it seems that the 26-year-old is not very highly rated by his current manager Julien Stephan.

In the last few days, reports in Italy have been claiming that the Old Lady are intending to recall their center-back from France and send him to an Italian club, with Lazio and Parma specifically mentioned.

However, instead of giving Rugani’s services to another Serie A side, wouldn’t the Bianconeri be better off keeping their man for at least another six months?

Even though one could understand the logic behind the breakup between the club (who wanted to focus on other young defenders) and the player (who needed more playing time), a reunion wouldn’t be such a bad idea for either side.

When Rugani first arrived to Juve in 2015, he was labelled as the next great defender after impressing in Maurizio Sarri’s Empoli at the young age of 20.

But after five underwhelming years at the Allianz stadium, it should be accepted that the Italian might just never fulfill his initial promise.

However, this doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t have a place in the Juventus squad, after all every club needs backup players who are able to step up when needed, and the young defender often gave decent performances in his 101 appearances for the club.

So while club captains Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, as well as young guns Matthijs De Ligt and Merih Demiral, would definitely be ahead of Rugani in the pecking order, the four mentioned defenders have probably never been all fit at the same time in the last 18 months.

In fact, this season, Andrea Pirlo has struggled on several occasions to find two natural center backs available to start the match, and Danilo has been used as an emergency option more than once, and based on the injury records of Chiellini and Demiral in particular, this situation is likely to happen again.

Therefore, instead of acting as a backup for a lesser side, it wouldn’t be too bad for Rugani to return to the place he called home for the last five years and lend a hand for his club in this particularly complicated season.

And who knows… Maybe he’ll even get the playing time he deserves this time.