Thomson scored the winning goal against Celtic in Saturday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League game at Ibrox but that was overshadowed by the clash with Hoops' striker Georgios Samaras, which ended up with the former Hibernian player leaving the field on a stretcher with a leg injury.

Television replays suggested there was little contact as Thomson made his way past the Greece international just outside the Celtic penalty area and the Rangers midfielder has been widely castigated in the media.

Thomson hit back, insisting he was not looking to deceive referee Stuart Dougal, a view backed up by Wishart.

The chief executive of PFA Scotland made a robust defence of the 23-year-old, saying: "Sometimes we are too quick to accuse players of diving and I think we have to be very careful in terms of using the word cheat.

"I'm always on about referees and how we cannot call them cheats because they call it as they see it.

"I've read a number of articles today saying Kevin Thomson is a cheat.

"What I would say is that in many instances players lift themselves off the ground when they think the tackle is coming, then the tackle doesn't come.

"(Arsenal striker) Eduardo's foot was planted on ground when he received that tackle from Martin Taylor and that caused an horrific injury.

"At the weekend, Abou Diaby's tackle on Bolton's Gretar Steinsson was an almost identical tackle but Steinsson just managed to lift himself off the ground to avoid injury.

"Players are aware of that and I thought that's what happened at the weekend.

"Kevin certainly got a sore one so I think we have to be very careful every time we talk about diving.

"The only time you can accuse a player of diving is when there is clearly no contract and certainly from Kevin Thomson's point of view, he is an honest player and not one to go down easily."

Wishart does not believe the incident will speed up the use of video evidence to punish players who dive, an idea supported by the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, Gordon Smith.

Wishart said: "That is something I have discussed a lot with Gordon Smith.

"I have canvassed a lot of our members, mostly SPL captains and the players would have reservations about that.

"We don't know the detail so it is hard to comment but Gordon is aware that we have reservations on it.

"Firstly, we are not too sure if it is a major problem in the game. We tend to focus on individual incidents.

"Secondly, as strange as it may seem, a lot of players feel it may put pressure on referees.

"Referees will be expected to re-referee games, there will be a lot of publicity on each individual incident and that will bring more pressure on referees.

"The view of the players is to let the referee control the game in his own style."

Meanwhile, Thomson has been passed fit for Thursday's UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg against Sporting Lisbon.