Despite winning the man of the match champagne on Saturday, Paolo says he was below par and reveals: "I played with a temperature and I was not well since Thursday. I was on antibiotics and in normal circumstances I might not have played.
"If we had been in the middle of the table and all our players were available that might have been the case, so as not to risk things for Wednesday."
But Paolo, who has been unfairly criticised in the past when he has missed long away trips through illness or injury, says it was his desire to help the cause that overcame the need to recuperate.
"I travelled up by train with a temperature of 37.7 degrees. Fredi could not play and we were bottom of the league so I couldn't give up to rest.
"I couldn't run properly but it doesn't matter that I wasn't well - I want to lead the fight to help us stay up."
Before the game he went up to several players to embrace and encourage them, and says: "That is usual, even when I wasn't skipper. Now, though, I am, and I have to give a little bit more than maybe the other people."
Meanwhile, as far as his contract situation is concerned, he feels he is under constant misinterpretation as to his intentions.
It has been widely assumed that he was setting a hard and fast deadline for new negotiations to begin, and he says: "When I speak honestly about that, people turn my words in a different way. I did an interview on Friday where it was clear what I was saying and I was giving a normal answer to people asking me something.
"But they turned it round into completely different things and it wasn't fair, so I would prefer to say nothing.
"But the club and everybody knows what I want to do, and it doesn't depend on me.
"I want to stay but it depends on them. If I leave it is because they don't want to keep me here - but we don't have to blame them because maybe this is the plan of the club - and we have to respect that.
"But everyone knows that I want to stay and if the club doesn't want to keep me and I have to leave it is not a problem.
"Now I am thinking about the team and my contract is not a problem because there are many clubs waiting to sign me.
"I want to stay here but I want to play football and if West Ham don't want to keep me here I will carry on anyway.
"But now I want to stay up with West Ham and give my best for them - and leave good memories for the supporters."