Diego Maradona was anaemic and dehydrated but is recovering well in hospital, his personal physician said on Tuesday.
Maradona, 60, is still undergoing tests after he was admitted to the Ipensa clinic in La Plata, Argentina on Monday, according to his doctor Leopoldo Luque, who said his condition is not related to COVID-19.
“He is evolving as we wanted. I hope he will want to stay until tomorrow,” Luque told reporters. “He will have to do long-term treatment.”
Luque said on Monday that Maradona was “not well psychologically” and it had impacted his physical health. He is expected to be under observation for at least three days.
“He is not well psychologically and that has an impact on his physical wellbeing,” Luque said. “He’s not as well as I would like and as well 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 much. He could be 10 thousand times better. And bringing him here helps him.
“It’s very difficult being Maradona.”
Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and is widely considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, coaches local club Gimnasia y Esgrima.
He had initially self-isolated after one of his bodyguards displayed symptoms of coronavirus, the country’s state-run news agency Telam reported last Tuesday.
He last appeared in public on his 60th birthday last Friday before his side’s league match against Patronato.
He was gifted a plaque and a cake to celebrate the occasion but he did not stay to watch the game and witnesses said he looked unwell and weak.
The former Napoli, Barcelona and Boca Juniors player has suffered frequent periods in hospital over the years, often due to the extravagant lifestyle that accompanied and followed his playing career.
The former Napoli striker was also admitted to hospital in January 2019 with internal bleeding in the stomach.
He also fell ill at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he was filmed passing out in an executive box at the Argentina-Nigeria game.
Maradona was taken into hospital in 2004 with severe heart and respiratory problems linked to cocaine use. He later underwent drug rehabilitation in Cuba and Argentina before a stomach-stapling operation in 2005 helped him lose weight.
In 2007, he checked himself into a clinic in Buenos Aires to help him overcome alcohol abuse problems.
(Reuters/Sky Sports)
