The legendary France striker had missed only failed to start four games since joining the club.
New York Red Bulls coach Mike Petke is refusing to discuss his reasons for dropping Thierry Henry to the bench for the match against D.C. United.
Henry was absent from the starting line-up for only the fourth time in the 86 games he has featured in since joining the Red Bulls from Barcelona in 2010 and spent just 32 minutes on the field during the 2-1 win on Saturday.
Despite being grilled on why he left the legendary France striker out of the team, Petke remained tight-lipped and offered only this explanation to reporters.
“I’m a coach, and I make decisions every day,” Soccerbyives report him as saying “I made my decision, and that’s between me and the team.”
The 37-year-old also responded to reports during the week that he and Henry were involved in a spat on the training pitch, playing down the speculation and accusing the media of blowing it out of proportion.
“(Henry) is an emotionally fiery person, which I love about him, and I’m an emotionally fiery person,” Petke explained.
“This happens all over the world, everywhere, it’s just news here because it’s the Red Bulls, and it’s Thierry Henry. It’s really much ado about nothing. We immediately cleared the air and he’s on board 100 percent.”
“We immediately were in my office for two hours,” he later added. “(We had a) civil conversation, I heard him out, he heard me out, and we moved on immediately. It didn’t affect the team whatsoever, it didn’t affect Thierry, it didn’t affect me.”
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