It will be the pair's first meeting since Suarez racially abused Evra at Anfield in October, earning an eight-match suspension from which he returned to the Liverpool side as a substitute in Monday's 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs, meanwhile, will go into their clash against fellow high-flyers Newcastle United at White Hart Lane on Saturday buoyed by the news that manager Harry Redknapp has been found not guilty of tax evasion charges.
Tensions at White Hart Lane will be nothing like those at Old Trafford where a delicate situation was exacerbated when Liverpool's pugnacious manager Kenny Dalglish said after the Spurs game that Suarez should never have been banned, despite Uruguayan admitting using the word "negro" in an on-field exchange with Evra.
Saturday's match, featuring one of the fiercest rivalries in English football, is being shown live in more than 200 countries with an estimated global audience of about 900 million and while most of the attention will be on the match, the cameras will also closely follow the pre-match handshake.
The FA has said the handshake will go ahead at Old Trafford and Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Football Association, said: "It is an opportunity for football to show it can deal with these issues, and everyone can learn and move on."
Evra has not said if he will shake Suarez's hand, but whoever dominates on the pitch could hold the key to a victory that will either lift United above leaders Manchester City at the top of the table - at least until Sunday - or take Liverpool closer to the top four.
"Next week we will have a difficult game at Villa, but if we have the same attitude that we had on Saturday we will do well. It is important that we stay top and don't think about the other teams," Mancini said.
