AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani insists the door remains open for Andriy Shevchenko to return to the San Siro after his disappointing season with Chelsea.

The 30-year-old Ukraine captain left the Rossoneri last summer to join the then Premiership champions but remains on friendly terms with Galliani and has been invited to watch the team play Liverpool in the Champions League final on May 23rd.

Galliani told his club's official website, www.acmilan.com: "Sheva remains in our hearts, he and his wife have been invited to Athens to follow the Champions League final.

"As for the future, let's see. He is a Chelsea player. Anyway, he knows we will keep a place open for a few months seeing as after his marriage Kaka has freed up a non-European Union place.

"But we are not talking about the future too much, now we have to think about the final."

Meanwhile, Rafael Benitez is optimistic that both his captain Steven Gerrard and his talismanic central defender Jamie Carragher will have signed new contracts by the time his side meet Milan in Athens.

There have been more negotiations this week and it seems that only minor details now need to be ironed out.

"I hope it may be done this week, but we are talking and we are sure it will be done soon," Benitez said today.

Benitez will take his squad to a Spanish training camp ahead of the final to get them acclimatised to the high temperatures expected in Athens.

Liverpool will fly out next Tuesday for the five day trip. The manager brushed aside fears of potential problems from another training camp, following the incidents that occurred when he took his squad to Portugal ahead of the Champions League victory in Barcelona back in February.

Then Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise were involved in the alleged 'golf club incident' that ended with several players being fined by the club for breaking curfew.

"We still have to finalise the details, but it is likely we will go away for five days to prepare after we play Charlton," Benitez said. "When we did this before the Barcelona game it had a positive impact, although I know people talked about other things in the end.

"The most positive thing is we can work together in a climate and in conditions which will be more like those we will face in the final."

He added: "I know people will mention that (the Portugal incident) again, but it is not an issue. We are thinking only about doing the right things to prepare the players for the final."