He told L’Equipe: “I was in seventh heaven when I knew I would be in the starting XI for the CL final.
“During the match when I saw the referee showing number seven, frankly I thought it was a joke.
“I could never imagine Arsene would replace me. Honestly, I would have named another player, with good reasons.
“I’ll never say who. That event remains the worst moment of my career.
“It’s worse than my fall-out with Raymond Domenech. Worse than my first damaged ligaments in 2002 and worse than my second four years later.
“2006, what an awful year! I even imagined giving up everything.”