Campbell pulls out of Manchester United date

Tottenham Hotspur have pulled central defender Sol Campbell out of Alex Ferguson's testimonial game on Monday night.

The game at Old Trafford was to have featured England international Campbell as a centre back for the Rest of the World side who will play a Manchester United team with several former stars returning to the club including Eric Cantona.

The game comes at an awkward time for the London club as they rejected a £15 million offer earlier in the week from United to buy their 23 year old defender who has also been linked with several Italian clubs and Real Madrid since rejecting new contract terms with Tottenham.

United are considering a new bid for the player who is valued at around £20 million by Tottenham and the London club know that he can leave them for nothing under the Bosman ruling at the end of next year. United may also try to swap Norwegian striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for Campbell plus cash but Tottenham are not keen to do any deal before the end of the year.

The testimonial would have provided the defender with a chance to recover some fitness. He has missed the start to the season with an ankle injury that forced him out of the first day's play back in August but Tottenham hope he will be fit to play by the end of the month and have put the player back into light training. Ferguson was knighted after guiding United to a treble last season and took charge in October 1986 at the club.