Roy Keane has avoided a potential meeting with former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson because he's unable to attend a charity match organised by David Beckham.
The former Red Devils and England midfielder will captain a Great Britain & Ireland side in a match against a Rest of the World XI, organised for children's charity Unicef on November 14.
Keane was asked by Beckham to play alongside him in the match, where he would go up Ferguson, who will take charge of the Rest of the World team. However Beckham's attempts to act as peacemaker have failed; the game clashes with the Republic of Ireland's key Euro 2016 showdown against Germany.
"We have asked Roy but obviously he is on international duty," admitted Beckham. "That is part of the problem with some of the other players we wanted to play."
He added: "We have to pick a weekend where we felt we would get a lot of support and 3pm on Saturday does not happen very often. We have asked Roy but unfortunately he is tied up."
Keane, who is assistant to Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill, shares an uneasy relationship with Ferguson, despite the success they shared at Old Trafford together.
Bust up
The pair initially fell out in 2005 after Keane criticised some of his Manchester United team-mates in an interview with the club's in-house TV station, and matters took a turn for the worse when Ferguson hit out at his former captain in his autobiography.
The Republic of Ireland will secure third place in Group D and a play-off spot if they beat Germany or Poland in either of their remaining two games.
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