Gardner was sent off in Monday’s game against Stoke City for and Sessegnon was giving his marching orders in the previous game against Aston Villa.
That deprived Sunderland of the services of both players for the remainder of the season, with the red cards carrying automatic suspensions.
Paolo di Canio confirmed that both players had been fined and that that would have been the case, even if he had had sympathy for their sendings off.
Paolo di Canio: “When a player has been sent off and he is clearly responsible for that, then he must be fined.
“That is life, I’m afraid.
“And that is how it will be under me at this club. We must have rules.
“If you let yourself down when there is a job to do then there must be consequences from that and players need to understand that, even if they are situations where you might have sympathy with them.
“You need to set rules so that it is clear what is right and what is wrong and fines are always a part of that.
“If you look at Craig for example.
“Craig was very sorry, he said a thousand times sorry, but I prefer it if he didn’t have to say sorry in the first place.
“He had just come back from a two-game suspension and now he gets another. He’s a fantastic professional but he needs to avoid these situations.”