During this summer’s World Cup, Chelsea striker, Nicolas Anelka, called his International manager’s mother a whore, and told him to go fuck himself.

Raymond Domenech gave Anelka the opportunity to apologise but he refused.

The events of this were reported in L’Equipe and without consulting the players or manager, the French FA sent Anelka packing.

In support of their team mate, the French players went on strike, refusing to train ahead of one of their group stage matches, and returned to the team hotel.

Patrice Evra, French captain throughout this incident, was criticised heavily by some for allowing the protest to continue. Whilst Anelka, who had created the whole situation, got away fairly easily with the incident, some people were claiming Evra should never play for France again.

Former Arsenal striker, Thierry Henry, who was one of those on strike, has today come out in defence of Evra, claiming that he did nothing wrong.

“Evra did it with his heart,” said Henry. “He didn’t do anything bad but sometimes doing it with your heart means you don’t see things. He is an honest guy and didn’t do anything wrong.”