Henry speaks out his handball for France to end Ireland's World Cup dreams

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has spoken for the first time about the handball that saw France beat the Republic of Ireland to reach the 2010 World Cup in a qualification playoff in 2009.

The incident caused outrage after he twice handled the ball to prevent it from going out of play before sending it into the path of William Gallas to score.

Nicolas Anelka had scored the only game in the first leg of the tie in Dublin while Michael Keane found an equaliser in the concluding fixture in Saint-Denis.

Ireland had hoped to take the match down to the wire only for Henry to produce what came to be known as 'the hand of frog', named after Diego Maradona's famous handball goal against England at the 1986 World Cup, 'the hand of god'.

Gallas headed home what proved to be the controversial winner in the 103rd minute and by the end of extra-time, Arsenal's hero - by then a Barcelona player - had become a villain.

Speaking to the BBC for a special documentary on mental health and football, Henry recalled what happened in the lead up to the famous foul that was not spotted by officials.

“There's something, a reaction I had, that I didn't even think about," he said.

"The ball passed the goalkeeper, he's on the line and he can't get the ball - your hand will come out. Your hand will come out. Because it's a reflex that you have.

"Your hand will come out. And my hand came out, I crossed the ball to Gallas, ball went in. We've been 'programmed' in brackets to play until the whistle blows.

"It was a bad, very bad reaction, reflex, however you want to call it. I didn't plan it."

Henry remains one of the most popular players to appear in the English Premier League and he was not used to being treated as an enemy of the game to neutrals.

“For the first time it happened to me, being the 'bad guy' in brackets," he said. "So my family started to be hurt. That's when I'm vulnerable. For the first time I'm like, well this is out of my hands.

"It's so hard when you can see that your people are hurt. There is nothing you can do about it, because I didn't plan that.

"Nobody offered any support. You are alone in this type of moment. Nobody phones you, nobody says 'how are you?'

"You deal with it alone. You deal with it alone. My only way is like ok, tomorrow's another day.”