PAOLO Di Canio praised his Swindon Town players for fighting through a sickness bug to secure a 1-1 draw at Crawley.

The Robins only travelled with 13 healthy players to Sussex on Friday night, as Nathan Thompson, Andy Williams, Wes Foderingham and Adam Rooney all arrived for training the day before the trip to the Broadfield Stadium with a virus.

However, the quartet forced themselves to be fit and all played a part in ensuring Town returned to Wiltshire with a point, leaving Di Canio to laud them for their dedication to the cause.

“Yesterday we discovered before the training session that four players arrived with a virus. They were sick the night before and the morning and yesterday they couldn’t train. Willo, Wes, Nathan and Rooney,” he said.

“All the four, I have to tell you, they didn’t travel with us yesterday afternoon but they wanted to be involved with us and that is a big signal.

“They have value not only in terms of professionalism but also in terms of human value.

“They feel the cause more than ever for different reasons because they feel this is an important moment of the season, for many reasons. For this I am proud. I didn’t have any doubts but I am proud.

“We had 17 players, with Aaron (Oakley) on the bench and with four players with a virus. Today they were white, even Nathan Thompson was white in the face today.

“They couldn’t eat a lot, they were careful about what they ate but today they did well.

“For this reason I am very positive, there is no doubt about the squad.”

Meanwhile, Oakley was summoned into the Wales Under 21 squad over the weekend ahead of the clash with Iceland on Wednesday.

He was previously on standby.