LONDON (AP) ― Chelsea captain John Terry staunchly defended himself on the witness stand Tuesday, denying prosecutors’ suggestions that he racially abused a black opponent as an “instinctive” reaction to being taunted over his private life.

The veteran defender also refused to apologize to Anton Ferdinand as he took the stand on the second day of his trial for an alleged racist slur hurled at the Queens Park Rangers player last October, which led to Terry being stripped of the England captaincy.

Terry and Ferdinand had traded insults after a disputed penalty call in the west London derby, with the Chelsea star claiming he was goaded about an alleged affair with the former girlfriend of an ex-teammate.

“The truth of the matter is you are not a racist ... you used racial language that day because you snapped and it was instinctive,” prosecutor Duncan Penny suggested to Terry. “You were fed up with people abusing you over the issue with your wife.”

Terry, however, responded that “it was almost two years on and I had heard it a million times before.”

“If I was going to snap, I would have snapped long before,” he said.

The alleged affair led to Terry being stripped of the England captaincy by coach Fabio Capello ahead of the 2010 World Cup. Capello then restored Terry as captain but quit in February when the Football Association took away the armband from the defender against the Italian coach’s wishes.

In Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Terry hardly resembled the commanding figure seen just two weeks ago on the field at the European Championship, where his orders boomed from the heart of England’s defense.

Terry’s voice was reduced to almost a whisper Tuesday, standing with his hands clasped in front of him while being quizzed by Penny as video footage of the alleged incident was replayed on screens in the court room.

Terry denied Penny’s suggestion that his “blood was up” with Chelsea surprisingly losing 1-0 to QPR at Loftus Road.

Terry was pushed on whether he had ever considered apologizing to Ferdinand.

“Why would I apologize to Anton when he is the one who accused me?” Terry responded. “What I said was in response to what Anton said to me.”

Terry told the court that he repeated an offensive term to Ferdinand during the confrontation because he believed the QPR player was accusing him of using it previously.

“I thought he was accusing me of calling him a black (expletive),” Terry said. “I was very angry and I was upset.”

Penny, however, had said earlier in court that it was “plainly and inherently unlikely” Terry would decide to repeat the phrase with no surprise or incredulity.

Before Terry entered the witness box, his words were heard during the morning session from police statements and interviews taken last year.

In a police statement, Terry insisted the language he used was “responsive and not accusatory.”

Defending his character to police, Terry highlighted his work helping to integrate a “multicultural group of players” at Chelsea and his long-standing support for the charity work of black former teammates Marcel Desailly and Didier Drogba.