Schalke striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has said that he deserved to be sent off for his foul on Hannover's Manuel Schmiedebach after receiving a six-match ban following last weekend's incident.
Huntelaar was shown his first ever straight red card during the Royal Blues' 1-0 Bundesliga win on Saturday after a tackle from behind on Schmiedbach.
Reports in the German media later suggested that the Netherlands international committed the foul in hope of collecting his fifth yellow card so he could serve a one-match ban during Tuesday's clash with Bayern Munich.
However, instead of a one-match suspension, Huntelaar now faces the prospect of missing the next six Bundesliga games -- more than a third of the remainder of the season. The striker was also fined 15,000 euros for an offensive gesture towards referee Sascha Stegemann.
Schalke have already announced that they are to appeal the ban, with sporting executive Horst Heldt admitting that the "red card was deserved" but that "contrary to the opinion of the supervisory board we believe that it was not violent conduct."
In a statement published on the club's official website on Monday, Huntelaar explained that he tried to take the ball from his opponent and that he had mistimed his challenge.
"I only saw on TV that the ball was further away than I assessed," he said. "I have to say that the referee saw it right."
Huntelaar also spoke about the offensive gesture he made, and said that "this was on no account directed at the referee."
He added: "I tapped my finger on my forehead because I thought that I must be crazy to have risked a red card with that foul. It was not my intention to make an offensive gesture towards the referee."
The statement later disappeared from the news section of Schalke's official website, and on Tuesday morning was only reachable via a direct link.