Can't set UIButton.highlighted to NO - objective-c

Question

I have a UITableViewCell with UIButton in each cell. When the button is pressed I set its state to highlighted like in this answer:
[self performSelector:#selector(doHighlight:) withObject:[cell.subviews objectAtIndex:2] afterDelay:0.0];
Then I do this:
- (void)doHighlight:(UIButton *)sender {
if (sender.highlighted) {
[sender setHighlighted:NO];
} else {
[sender setHighlighted:YES];
}
}
But the button not only is just not highlighted at all, not speaking about the fact that I should be able to UNhighlight it.
Any ideas on what is wrong?

Answer 1

I ended up using UIButton's selected property. It does not require any delay and it works brilliantly with this type of things:
if (!sender.selected) {
[sender setSelected:YES];
[cell addSubview:hiddenButton];
[self performSelector:#selector(doHighlight:) withObject:sender];
} else {
[sender setSelected:NO];
[self performSelector:#selector(doUnHighlight:) withObject:sender];
}

Answer 2

Here is a possible solution you are looking for. I have modified my answer
UIButton *button=[cell.subviews objectAtIndex:2];
//I am adding these five lines to ensure the different
//states of the button to achieve your highlighted state goal.
UIImage *highlightImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"highlight.png"];//Also used when button is selected
UIImage *normalImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"normal.png"];
[button setBackgroundImage:normalImage forState:(UIControlStateHighlighted)];
[button setBackgroundImage:highlightImage forState:(UIControlStateSelected)];
[button setBackgroundImage:normalImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self performSelector:#selector(doHighlight:) withObject:[cell.subviews objectAtIndex:2]];
-(IBAction) doHighlight:(id)sender
{
if ([sender isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]])
{
UIButton *btn=(UIButton*)sender;
if (btn.isSelected) {
[btn setSelected:NO];
}
else
{
[btn setSelected:YES];
}
}
}