Tony Cascarino said yesterday that he plans to finish his marathon playing career when his French club, AS Nancy complete their programme at the end of the season.

Cascarino, who announced his retirement from international football after the European championship play-off against Turkey, was in Dublin to announce details of the testimonial game he will share with Steve Staunton at Lansdowne Road on May 21st.

It will feature a Republic of Ireland X1 against Liverpool and the striker, 38 next September, plans to play in part of it as a special farewell.

The Republic's most capped player with 88 appearances, said that the only thing which would induce him to extend his club career would be the chance of returning to one of his former clubs, Marseille.

"There is word on the grapevine that they may be interested in signing me and if that's true, then I would have to reconsider my position," he said. "I have a lot of happy memories of my stay there but at this stage, it would take something special - and not just financially - to persuade me to go on.

"I think I am still playing reasonably well and I've 10 goals with Nancy this season to back it up. I could possibly go on for another season in one of the lower divisions but it was always my intention to go out at the top."

Cascarino, who made his first Ireland appearance in the closing months of Eoin Hand's reign as manager, against Switzerland in 1985, said that he hoped to "go down a different avenue" when he puts away his playing gear.

"I've been very lucky in that I've had 20 years in the game, far longer than I could have expected, but it's now time that I tried something different.

"I'm always conscious that I've two children in England whom I want to see more of and that must be a factor in any decision I make. But at this point, I want to get to the end of the season before deciding on my next move."

Steve Staunton, who has only six caps fewer than Cascarino, hasn't appeared in Liverpool's team since shortly after Christmas and he now intends to have a clear the air meeting with manager Gerard Houllier.

"I need to be playing regularly at the highest level and I need to find out what the manager has in mind for me," he said. "I was unlucky is as much as I was in the team for the start of the good run but then got injured.

"Since then, they have just got better and better and in that situation, it's easy to see why the manager goes with what he's got." Staunton said that he had assurances from Gerard Houllier that Liverpool would be sending their first team squad to Dublin for the game." He's assured me that all the big name players will be over and there's no reason to doubt that," he said.

The fixture, the last in the series of testimonials for senior Ireland players, is being sponsored by Nivea For Men and tickets which are being distributed through HMV Ticketmaster go on sale today.