Rajiv van La Parra has spoken for the first time of his blatant penalty box dive at Burnley and said: "I'm no cheat."
Huddersfield Town's Dutch winger was widely condemned for an attempt to con the referee when he went down under pressure from Matthew Lowton.
TV replays showed there was clearly no contact and van La Parra was booked by referee Chris Kavanagh and later fined by boss David Wagner.
But, speaking about what happened to the Examiner, van La Parra insisted it wasn't an attempt to cheat.
"I don't think players do it on purpose," he said. "For me it was more instinctive. At the end the player did not hit me but I was expecting him to hit me and that's why I protected myself and that's why I jumped a little bit up."
There was a similar incident in Town's 4-0 home defeat against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday when England star Dele Alli was booked for diving when challenged by Jonas Lossl.
Van La Parra said: "Of course you don't want to cheat in games and sometimes these things happen.
"Dele Alli did the same thing. I don't think that we as players do it on purpose. Sometimes you expect the player to kick you and you protect yourself to not to get kicked hard or to get injured. I think Dele Ali did the same."
Van La Parra's misdemeanour at Turf Moor drew criticism from Burnley boss Sean Dyche who branded it "unacceptable" and a bad example to youngsters.
And Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy was also unimpressed slamming the "stupidity" of the dive.
Van La Parra got a talking to from Wagner who told him, however, it was "not a big problem" for him.
"He said like I said you do it instinctively and he fully backed me," said van La Parra. "It was not a big problem for him.
"He said there is no one in this world who never cheated so no one can blame each other. No one is perfect, that's what he said, and I was happy with his words."
