The central defender was already paired with the Old Lady in the summer, when the club was in need of new faces after the departures of Fabio Cannavaro, Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta.

Meanwhile, the Old Lady are expected to continue preparations for their return to Serie a by persuading Mauro Camoranesi and Pavel Nedved to commit to contract extensions.

Although the club have stated that they still intend to make amendments to the arena, the Old Lady have come up with a much cheaper alternative than the one previously drawn up.