Arsenal youth chief Liam Brady doesn't believe he'll ever get over the way the Republic of Ireland were robbed of a World Cup place by France.

Thierry Henry's infamous hand-ball for William Gallas' playoff winner still hurts many Irish fans.

"I don't think [the World Cup wounds] ever will heal," Brady told Arsenal.com.

"When I was a player I had two close campaigns to qualify for the World Cup and never got there. I had a couple of bad decisions in Paris to qualify for 1978 and 1982, a couple of really weird decisions in Paris at the time. But this one took the biscuit.

"To lose it the way we did to that goal was something that I won't ever forget but there is always the European Championship and that is a great competition as well. We are all very excited by the draw we've had [Russia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra]; some people are saying it's easy but I don't think it's easy at all.

"I think with the team we've got, the spirit we've got and some of the players we've got, we can run very close to qualifying."