Ajax’s Joel Veltman hit the headlines on Sunday evening for a moment of unsportsmanlike conduct.

After his teammate - and Chelsea loanee - Bertrand Traore went down injured during their clash against Sporta Rotterdam, it appeared that the right-back was about to kick the ball out for him to receive treatment.

After facing up to opponent Ivan Calero, Veltman pointed to Traore on the floor causing the Sporta Rotterdam player to turn around.

Veltman then proceeded to take advantage of Calero’s concern and continue playing.

While some would argue that all players need to play to the whistle, there's no doubt it was very unsporting from Veltman.

And despite the uproar, Veltman doesn’t appear to understand what he did was out of order.

Veltman was 'being clever'

"I was just being clever," Veltman told Dutch outlet Metro.

"Bertrand went down and I thought to myself 'I am going to use this to my advantage'. I pretended to kick the ball out of play, but when my opponent looked behind him, I just went past him instead.

"I know that it was perhaps not the most beautiful thing to do, but it was just something clever, nothing more. I can have a good laugh about it.”

In the video, we didn’t really see how his opponents reacted after the ball went out of play - but we can imagine they weren’t best pleased.

What Ajax players said

And Veltman has revealed what his own teammates said to him after the match.

"My team-mates told me in the dressing room that they would have kicked me hard had I pulled off something like this against one of them... What would I have done had my cross resulted in a goal? A goal is a goal!" he said.

"I think people are exaggerating all this a bit. It was not like I found myself one-on-one with the goalkeeper after it.

"What I would have done in a situation like this? I always wait until the ball is out of play. I would not be standing there and looking behind me. That was not the brightest thing to do.

"But let's not turn this into something big. It is better to laugh about it than turn it into something big. I will not do it again, also because I don't think it will work again."

Luckily for everyone, Veltman’s eventual cross didn’t lead to anything as it was easily cleared.

Ajax went on to win the match 2-0 to stay within five points of league leaders Feyenoord.