Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is keeping his fingers crossed over Henrik Larsson’s parent club Helsingborgs allowing the forward to play in the Charity football match to mark the 50th anniversary of United’s entry into European competition, against Marcello Lippi’s European All-Star XI on March 13 at Old Trafford.

35-year-old Larsson’s short loan spell with the Red Devils ends on March 12 when he leaves for his home-town club, but Ferguson is expecting the Swedish side to let the in-form striker play one last time for United.

Despite skipper Gary Neville backing the stay of Larsson until the end of the season, the United boss, however, is understood to be not in favour as the agreement reached before the current deal was that Helsingborgs would only let Larsson on for short time which coincided with Swedish off-season.

Nevertheless, Ferguson is looking forward to a memorable match in which former Red Devil David Beckham will play against his former team. Giving him company in the All-Star team will be Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, besides members of Italy’s World Cup-winning squad.

“Thirty-three invitations have gone out to all the top players in Europe and hopefully, we will get a really good side,” said Ferguson.

“We will play a strong squad, and Marcello is quite positive about most of Italy’s World Cup-winning side being available, so it should be a fabulous night.”

Meanwhile, no big names from Arsenal and Chelsea will feature in the Lippi’s team as they have Premiership commitments the following night.

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