Former Tyrone footballer Brian McGuigan has defended himself against accusations of diving.

GAA pundit Joe Brolly claimed in an article that McGuigan dived to get Down's Gregory McCartan sent off during the Ulster SFC final in 2003.

However, the triple All-Ireland winner stressed that was not his intentions and writing in his weekly Gaelic Life column, he admitted that he sympathised with the Down legend.

"Joe said I took a dive to get Gregory McCartan sent off," said McGuigan. "Gregory won the free and threw the ball at me. When that incident happened, my main aim, in fact my only aim, was to get the ball thrown up and for Down to lose the free.

"I was never expecting Michael Monaghan to send Gregory McCartan off, and I can sincerely say that I felt so sorry for Gregory McCartan, because it was late in his career and for him to miss out on playing in that Ulster final was extremely tough on him.

"But, no matter what Joe Brolly says, I know that I never set out to get Gregory McCartan sent off. The fact is that I didn't send him off, the referee did." Tweet

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