Wrap text - case insensitive with php

[OttoSV]

If I search for \[code\]tOm ArNfElD\[/code\] and the \[code\]$variable\[/code\] is "Tom Arnfeld", I get great results form \[code\]LIKE\[/code\] in MySQL (which is case-insensitive).How could I wrap the matched text in the \[code\]$variable\[/code\] with a \[code\]<span></span>\[/code\] to highlight to what part of the search matched the query? I need to retain the original case of the \[code\]$variable\[/code\].