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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Diego Maradona has been admitted to a hospital in Argentina with undisclosed “health problems”, although it is not related to COVID-19 and his condition is not believed to be serious, his personal physician reported Monday and local media.
Maradona, 60, was transferred to the Ipensa clinic in La Plata, about an hour from Buenos Aires. Maradona trains the local club Gimnasia y Esgrima.
Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and is widely considered one of the best players of all time, was admitted to hospital for tests, said his doctor Leopoldo Luque.
He had been feeling ill for some time and will be under observation for “at least three days,” Luque told reporters.
“He is not feeling well psychologically and that has an impact on his physical well-being,” Luque said. “He is not as good as I would like and as good as I know he can be. He needs help, this is the time to help him.”
“Diego is a person who is sometimes excellent and sometimes not so great,” Luque added. “It could be 10,000 times better. And bringing him here helps him.”
“It is very difficult to be Maradona.”
Luque did not give specific details of Maradona’s illness, but said it was not related to COVID-19.
Maradona last appeared in public on his 60th birthday last Friday before his team’s league game against the Patronato.
They gave him a plate and cake to celebrate the occasion, but he did not stay to watch the game and witnesses said he looked ill and weak.
The former Napoli, Barcelona and Boca Juniors player has suffered frequent periods of hospitalization over the years, often due to the extravagant lifestyle that accompanied and continued his playing career.
The former Napoli striker was admitted to hospital in January 2019 with internal bleeding in his stomach.
He also fell ill at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he was filmed fainting in an executive box at the Argentina-Nigeria match.
Maradona was admitted to the hospital in 2004 with serious heart and respiratory problems related to cocaine use. He later underwent drug rehab in Cuba and Argentina before a stomach stapling operation in 2005 helped him lose weight.
In 2007, he registered at a clinic in Buenos Aires to help him overcome alcohol abuse problems.
(Reporting by Ramiro Scandolo, written by Andrew Downie and Simon Evans, edited by Pritha Sarkar, Richard Pullin and Himani Sarkar)
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