Henry was a second-half substitute in Barca's 0-0 draw at Racing Santander and Rijkaard said afterwards: "He was on the bench because I had to choose one of them, nothing else.

"We want a competitive team. If one of the players needs to go on the bench, it's not the end of the world for him."

Asked why he replaced Lionel Messi with Henry, Rijkaard added: "We needed more shape and with Samuel Eto'o and Henry we had that. It allowed us to play more on the flanks. It's something we must work on in training."