Thierry Henry has admitted he made a mistake in continuing to play through the pain of sciatica for the first three months of this season. The Arsenal striker returned looking fresh against Charlton Athletic on Tuesday after an eight-game absence and believes he should have taken a break sooner.

Henry said he had suffered from "very bad" sciatica and conceded it affected his form and mental state. Matters came to a head just over a month ago when an angry Henry left Arsenal's training ground early, aware he would not feature the following day against Tottenham.

"I have been playing with it since the start of the season," he said. "The mistake I made was to carry on playing with it. I did get hammered about the way I was playing but it got to the stage where it was stupid to play with it. I had to stop and that's what I did. You see straight away that when I am fresh my legs are better.

"I missed eight games: it is a lot," Henry added. "When you are well within your body, you enjoy your game. When you are not well within your body you are upset with yourself because you cannot help the team as much as you would like. I put my hand up. The only mistake I did was to carry on playing with it."

Henry had not been performing to his best before his break but scored a penalty, won a penalty and set up Justin Hoyte's first Arsenal goal in the 4-0 win over Charlton. Arsene Wenger indicated the striker will start at Liverpool on Saturday.

"When I am not playing as I can and all is not well with my body it shows straight away because I do not come and take the ball and have a go at defenders," Henry said. "That's what I tried to do (against Charlton) and I was pretty pleased with the way we played."

Arsenal's final two goals were scored by Robin van Persie, bringing his season's total to 12. "He is finally playing as a centre forward and when he plays there, he shows that he can score goals," said Henry, Wenger having recently abandoned a 4-1-4-1 formation that had Van Persie playing from the left.

Henry emphasised Van Persie's potential and said he would he happy for the Dutchman to end his seven-season run as Arsenal's leading scorer.

"If he wants and if his head is right, like it is at the moment, he can be in years to come one of the best ever in the Premiership," Henry said. "It would be great if he finished top scorer. That would be something special for him."

Fulham expect Antti Niemi to "be back in a matter of weeks" after confirming that an MRI scan showed no spinal damage. The goalkeeper fell on his head after attempting to clear the ball in their draw at Watford, forcing play to be halted for seven minutes.

Fulham are hopeful of signing Oguchi Onyewu, a United States centre half, from Standard Liege for around £1.5 million and hope to swiftly conclude a six-month loan for the Roma striker Vincenzo Montella that would leave Collins John surplus to requirements.

Watford are keen on John but the 21-year-old, who would cost about £2 million, is not interested in a move to Vicarage Road.

Guardian Service