Kyle Lafferty was banned for 10 matches by the Scottish Football Association for making a sectarian comment.
The 35-year-old made the comment after he was asked to pose for a photo.
The player from Northern Ireland won't be playing until the League Cup semi-finals against Celtic in January.
He apologized to the club, supporters and his family.
My response to the incident was completely out of place.
I immediately regretted it and have been embarrassed about it ever since. I agree that I should not have responded that way.
The SFA has changed its rules regarding offensive behavior.
There is a minimum 10-game ban for the use of insulting language that includes reference to the likes of ethnic origin, race, nationality, religion orbelief.
The player was fined by the club for the incident and was expected to be suspended for a long time.
He said earlier this month that he had put his hands up after making a mistake.
He has to pay for what he said. We also have as well.
The anti-sectarian charity, Nil By Mouth, provides education and training to tackle sectarianism in society.
He was left out of the Northern Ireland squad for the Nations League games against Kosovo and Greece and said it was difficult to deal with.
I'm going to work with Nil By Mouth to make sure that the young people at the club don't end up like me in the future.
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