Henry (left) and Pires in training with the French squad

France coach Jacques Santini, who has now moved to Tottenham, claimed he had to intervene in a heated row between the pair during a practice game.

But Henry told the London Evening Standard: "How can you imagine that I would have a fight with Robert?

"It just isn't true. I am tired of having to say this rubbish is wrong."

Henry added: "Robert and myself are good friends and we had an argument that was finished as soon as it had started.

"No fight. Nothing like that. It was the kind of thing that happens in every football team. It was just an exchange of words. Nothing more.

There were some training sessions that were electric Jacques Santini

"You want to see what a friendship we have? Look at the way we celebrated together after I had scored against Switzerland."

Santini said the row occurred only two days before France's game with England and the coach said he had to stop a training session.

"There were clashes between players, some from the same club. Arsenal? Yes. Thierry Henry and Robert Pires? You know that," he told The Sun.

"There were some training sessions that were electric.

"We tried to control our players after that.

"This has come out as it was difficult to have the KGB or CIA everywhere to protect us from people seeing."

France beat England 2-1 thanks to two late goals from Zinedine Zidane but lost 1-0 to Greece at the quarter-final stage.