PAOLO Di Canio has urged Luis Suarez not to turn his back on English football, and expressed his hope that the under-fire Liverpool striker learns from his impending ten-match ban just as he was forced to change his own outlook following an 11-match suspension.

Suarez, who last night decided not to appeal the Football Association's hefty punishment for his bite on Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic, will miss the final four games of the current campaign and the first six games of next season, a scenario that has plunged his Premier League future into doubt.

Back in 1998, Di Canio was handed an even longer ban after he pushed referee Paul Alcock to the floor during a match between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal.

At the time, he considered leaving English football for good, but just as he refused to bow to public pressure and returned to prove his critics wrong, so he hopes Suarez will continue to ply his considerable talents in the Premier League once his suspension has ended.

“He is a talented player,” said the Sunderland manager, who will spend the weekend preparing his side for Monday's trip to Aston Villa. “We have seen that many times and we all appreciate the way he plays.

“We want this type of footballer here because we want to stay at the top of the world game and maintain the best football. I hope when we play against them he is not on the field, but in general we want players like that in English football.

“I hope if he loves English football like I did, he will stay, but he has to understand you can't bite the arms of people. It is the second time something like this has happened to him. He had a seven-match ban last time (for racially abusing Patrice Evra) and now has ten, so he is missing many matches.”

Di Canio also missed more than a quarter of a season after pushing Alcock to the floor in an incident that, at the time, was regarded as every bit as shocking as Suarez's unprovoked attack on Ivanovic.

The Black Cats boss contests the seriousness of the incident, claiming he never intended to hurt Alcock and arguing that his actions were a reaction to an elbow from Arsenal centre-half Martin Keown that went unpunished.

However, he does not deny that he deserved to receive a heavy punishment, and claims the time he spent out of the game forced him to reassess his behaviour and conduct.

“My reaction was stupid,” he said. “Keown came close and gave me an elbow in my face and the referee came to my face with the red card when I was already angry. It was silly and stupid, but the push was not violent conduct to hurt a person.

“The reaction was very strong though. Even the Prime Minister said, 'We have to push out the barbarian from England', which was too much. It was tough, but everything that happened improved me as a professional, and more importantly as a man.”

In the immediate aftermath of his suspension, Di Canio was forced to return to Italy to escape the scrutiny and criticism that accompanied his punishment.

His agent recommended he did not return to Sheffield, and even set up a prospective move to a club in Turkey to enable him to put the episode behind him.

However, Di Canio was adamant that he did not want to turn his back on English football, and eventually travelled back to England more determined than ever to make his mark.

“I was thinking, 'You did something big this time – mamma mia, oh my God',” said Di Canio. “My agent spoke to me in Italy two days later and said, 'I don't think you can go back there'. He was searching for a club in Turkey, but I said, 'What?'

“I still wanted to play in England because I wanted to show my quality. A Turkish club approached me with double money, but I said, 'No chance'. I had a contract with Sheffield Wednesday and wanted to go back to England.

“It is my football. Yes, I did something wrong and I paid my price. But this is the place and the football I love. I wanted to prove that you can make one mistake in your life, but for this you do not have to be banned from one nation.”

Almost a decade and a half on, and Di Canio finds himself presiding over a Sunderland team that can all but ensure their Premier League survival if they win at Villa Park on Monday.

Wigan's game with Tottenham tomorrow will have a major impact on the situation in the bottom half of the table, but Di Canio is confident that a third successive victory would effectively guarantee his side's survival whatever else happens.

“If we win on Monday, we stay up,” he said. “I told my players that Monday is our Champions League final. That is what I have been saying ever since we joined up again at the start of the week.

“They have to think of this week as the most important week of the season. If we win on Monday, we will stay up with three weeks to spare. It will probably not be mathematically certain, but it will be very close.”