Soccer:Nicolas Anelka admits his "head was gone" during the infamous row with Raymond Domenech which led to him being sent home from the World Cup, but denied swearing at his former national team boss.
The Chelsea striker was expelled from the French camp after the spat which occurred at half-time of the Group A match against Mexico on June 16th, with Anelka claiming the argument centred over his positioning on the pitch.
The squad subsequently revolted against Domenech, refusing to train on June 20th - just two days before their final group game against host nation South Africa — in protest at Anelka’s treatment.
In an interview with France Soir, Anelka recalled: "We returned to the dressing room and, for five minutes, the players talked. The coach arrived and said to me: 'Damn, Nico, I've told you to stop dropping back and stay up front'.
“I told him if I stay there, I do not get a touch of the ball, and said: ‘Stop telling me to stay up front. I won’t stay up front’.
“It carried on, but at that moment my head was gone. I wasn’t even listening to what he said.”
Domenech’s immediate reaction, Anelka claims, was to dismiss him from the squad despite the efforts of captain Patrice Evra to pacify both parties.
“He said: ‘Go, it’s fine, leave’ and asked one of his assistants to get Dede (Andre-Pierre Gignac) ready,” the Chelsea striker continued.
“I said: ‘No problem, deal with your team’.
“Pat (Evra) and Franck (Ribery) were next to me and they said: ‘Stop, Nico, calm down. Let it go, shut up!’ Then Pat asked me to put my jersey back on and said to the coach that these things happen all the time, that he should not react on a whim and make me leave. Again, the coach didn’t listen and made his changes.”
In the days that followed, Evra accused a "traitor" within the party of attempting to destabilise the squad by revealing details of the row, which was splashed over the front cover of L'Equipe.
Evra was seen arguing with fitness coach Robert Duverne moments before the training-ground strike began, though the latter strenuously denied leaking the information to the press.
Anelka disregarded the issue, saying: “The mole? I don’t care, it could be anyone.”
And he recalled his reaction when the country’s president Nicolas Sarkozy became involved in the fall-out from the row.
“When the president said that if a player had made remarks like that against his coach, he deserved to be excluded, I told him he was absolutely right,” he said.
“But I did not feel concerned because those words did not come out of my mouth.”
The Anelka affair and subsequent players’ strike, coupled with a dismal campaign which yielded just one point and one goal, has led new coach Laurent Blanc to suspend the entire 23-man party for next week’s friendly against Norway and name a shadow squad today featuring 15 uncapped players.
Forwards Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa are included. The pair were surprise exclusions from Domenech’s World Cup group.
Benzema’s Real Madrid team-mate, midfielder Lassana Diarra, was ruled out of the tournament due to illness and is also among Blanc's squad, as is Arsenal’s Samir Nasri.
There is also a place for Wigan winger Charles N’Zogbia and reported Stoke target Loic Remy of Nice.
Roma’s Jeremy Menez overcame a minor knee injury suffered in Saturday’s friendly against Paris St Germain to take his place in the squad.
Either Nicolas Douchez or Stephane Ruffier will play in goal for the first time, while Aly Cissokho, Mathieu Debuchy, Adil Rami, Mamadou Sakho and Benoit Tremoulinas feature in an inexperienced defensive septet in which only Menez’s club-mate Philippe Mexes (13 caps) and Rennes’ Rod Fanni (four) have played for their country before.
Lille’s Yohan Cabaye, St Etienne duo Blaise Matuidi and Yann Mvila and Toulouse’s Moussa Sissoko join N’Zogbia in the midfield running and PSG striker Guillaume Hoarau completes the uncapped contingent.
Diarra and Benzema, with 27 caps apiece, are by far the most experienced members of the squad, with Nasri (15) and Mexes the only others in double figures.
Up front, Ben Arfa has seven caps and Lyon’s Jimmy Briand three.
France squad:Nicolas Douchez, Stephane Ruffier; Aly Cissokho, Mathieu Debuchy, Rod Fanni, Philippe Mexes, Adil Rami, Mamadou Sakho, Benoit Tremoulinas; Yohan Cabaye, Lassana Diara, Blaise Matuidi, Yann Mvila, Samir Nasri, Charles N'Zogbia, Moussa Sissoko; Hatem Ben Arfa, Karim Benzema, Jimmy Briand, Guillaume Hoarau, Jeremy Menez, Loic Remy.