Sheringham made me moan but I'm excited to play with Pires and Zola in G4Ukraine

Ukraine was invaded by neighbouring country Russia last year, forcing millions of people to leave their homes and country.

A school was recently destroyed by Russian missile attacks, and all the money raised through sponsorship deals, ticket sales and merchandise will be used to rebuild it, as well as show Russia that the football world stands against their war.

Legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is managing one of the teams, with Ukraine international and Gunners star Oleksandr Zinchenko and Patrick Vieira also featuring against former Chelsea stars including Andriy Shevchenko.

Howard has thrown his hat in the ring to play in the special charity match, and despite it not being the first time playing against world famous footballers, he's still over the moon to be taking part.

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When asked what persuaded him to get involved, he told talkSPORT's White and Jordan show: "You just forget there are children in the middle of this war and the whole point of this game is to rebuild a school so they can be kids again.

"So, it's an absolute honour and privilege to play alongside people like Zola, Michael Essien, Joe Cole and [Jimmy-Floyd] Hasselbaink.

"It's a bit like when you do comedy gigs for a charity, the audience just gets to have a laugh, and you accidentally raise a lot of money for a good cause.

"It's a similar thing watching this football game. You'll see all these legends - probably nut-meg me and make me look like a moron - and it'll be joyous, but we've accidentally raised a lot of money for a good cause."

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Howard has no problem admitting it was likely he'll be shown up by the stars around him, too.

"Well obviously not against that calibre, no," he said when asked if he was good at football. "In the world of comedy, I'm alright. In the world of World Cup-winning footballers, not great! So it's just a joy to be there.

"Anything we can do to raise money for an important charity is the whole point, really. What the crowd want is for someone like me to miss a sitter, take the mickey out of it."

Despite taking part in Soccer Aid, Howard thinks he still won't be able to contain how starstruck he'll be being around some of the players taking part.

And he revealed he once had a hilarious reaction to watching Teddy Sheringham in the flesh.

"I've played in some of these games and they're a different breed," he continued. "I remember training with Teddy Sheringham for Soccer Aid a couple of years ago, he was just making me moan.

"His first touch, was like, ugh. I was telling my wife about all the players playing, I was like 'it's Zola, it's Essien, it's Zinchenko!' and it was like an eight-year-old girl trying to explain K-Pop to me.

"Unless you know it, it doesn't mean anything!"

When asked how he felt playing in the company of these great names: "I think you just keep quiet! You know when you're a kid and you try and stay up as late as you could and sink into the sofa so your mum wouldn't recognise you and get any extra half an hour before you had to go to bed.

"Just keep quiet, try and get ten, 20 minutes on the pitch and soak it up! I remember playing in Soccer Aid and Robbie Keane was going around [after training] and saying 'go on, have a drink!'

"I was like 'oh, I'm trying to stay off the booze'. He said, 'do you think you're going to do well?' and I said, 'yeah I think I'll do okay', and he went, 'well, you won't! They're professional footballers, you haven't got a hope, have a drink!'

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"It turns out he was doing it to everybody. So he was quietly going round trying to get everyone on the lash so his team would have a better opportunity!"

talkSPORT's coverage of this weekend's Game4Ukraine begins at 5:30pm on Saturday.