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Thierry Henry hailed Micah Richards as "his favourite person" on CBS as he issued an emotional statement on his resilience after injury forced him to retire ahead of time - which drove him to drinking.

The former Manchester City and Aston Villa defender has become a regular in the punditry sphere. One of his commitments is with US broadcaster CBS Sport as he plays a lead role in their Champions League coverage, often alongside Henry and Jamie Carragher.

Host Kate Scott has become renowned for poking fun at Richards when she does her introductions, but Henry asked if he could fill in before delivering some emotional and kind words towards his fellow pundits on Wednesday night.

Henry hailed ex-Tottenham and Fulham star Clint Dempsey, referring to him as "US soccer royalty" and then moved to Richards as he opened up about the admiration he had for the 37-year-old. Admitting he doesn't know how he dealt with having his career cut short before the ex-City star conceded he turned to alcohol to deal with the frustration.

The Arsenal legend said: "I wanted to say something to you, yesterday I couldn't do it because it was Kasper's moment, yesterday you made me realise something. I wanted to do that face-to-face, at the end of my career I played ten years with extreme pain in my achilles on both sides, but I could finish my career on my terms, you couldn't do that.

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"I have the utmost respect for you for dealing with it, I don't know how you dealt with it mentally. And yet you sit here happy, lifting everyone's spirit, making everyone happy. I am kind of looking at it and I just wanted to tell you that because we don't take you for granted.

"Sometimes you might think you're not being seen, and we see you. For a very long time, my favourite person on this show, was Chloe. She is the girl that helps me to do the analysis, but I'm sure she won't mind me saying you're my favourite on this show."

Richards announced his retirement from professional football in the summer of 2019 after being plagued by a persistent knee injury, which meant he last played for Aston Villa in October 2016. He spent more than two years trying to rehab, but ultimately called time on his career at 31.

The pair embraced after with Richards then saying: "I just try to see the positives in life, uplift people." However he confessed that there was dark moments,

"I was definitely depressed. I didn't address it," he said. "I was drinking a lot to sort of mask it. I had a good friend who put my life into perspective, he said 'are you happy, have you got your family around you?'"

Richards claimed: "As bad as my injury was at the time, I tried to look at it as positive, not a negative".

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