Thierry Henry will be missing his CBS Sports studio when he leads France out at the Olympics.

The Arsenal legend is Les Bleus’ U23 coach, and that job involved him managing the Olympic football team for their home tournament.

That should have been a post-playing career highlight, but it’s quickly turning into a nightmare.

Clubs have free licence to reject requests for their players as the Olympics isn’t a FIFA competition, and that’s particularly bad for France.

Explaining the situation, Henry told the media at his provisional squad announcement: “I haven’t been rejected this much since high school.

“There is no discussion: you go there, you ask, they tell you ‘no’ and you leave.

“It’s not easy to find yourself in a situation where you have to ask certain clubs abroad to let their players leave when you can’t offer them anything in return. They are within their rights not to send them since they are not FIFA dates.”

Olympic sides can select three over 23 players, and Henry made it clear he wanted Olivier Giroud, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Greizmann.

However, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have blocked their players from travelling, and Giroud is understood to have rejected the opportunity.

Henry has kept one over 23 space open in his squad as he admitted he’s holding out on Mbappe.

The full squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Lucas Chevalier (Lille), Guillaume Restes (Toulouse), Obed Nkambadio (Paris FC), Robin Risser (Strasbourg)

Defenders: Bafodé Diakité (Lille), Maxime Estève (Burnley), Bradley Locko (Brest), Castello Lukeba (Leipzig), Kiliann Sildillia (Fribourg), Adrien Truffert (Rennes), Lenny Yoro (Lille)

Midfield: Maghnes Akliouche (Monaco), Joris Chotard (Montpellier), Désiré Doué (Rennes), Manu Koné (Mönchengladbach), Khephren Thuram (Nice), Enzo Millot (Stuttgart), Lesley Ugochukwu (Chelsea), Warren Zaire-Emery (PSG )

Forwards: Bradley Barcola (PSG), Arnaud Kalimuendo (Rennes), Alexandre Lacazette (OL), Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace), Michael Olise (Crystal Palace), Mathys Tel (Bayern Munich)