According to a hospital statement, Maradona is stable

Buenos Aires: Football legend Diego Maradona, who came close to death with heart and lung problems last month, was back in intensive care on Wednesday. He was suffering from indigestion.

The 43-year-old 1986 World Cup winning captain was readmitted to the Suizo-Argentina hospital in Buenos Aires where he was treated from April 18 to 29.

A hospital statement described Maradona’s condition as “stable”.

The statement said Maradona was being treated in intensive care unit “because there were individual rooms allowing greater privacy and constant surveillance for patients.”

The football legend’s personal physician Alfredo Cahe told local radio that he will be in hospital for two or three days.

Cahe said Diego needed a health check-up before leaving for Cuba, adding that he was very tired owing to his excess weight.

Maradona arrived at the hospital by ambulance on early Wednesday. The staff quickly installed barriers in front of the entrance to keep the press and onlookers at bay.

Last Thursday Maradona surprisingly left the clinic without the full agreement of medical staff and ex-wife Claudia Villafane.

On leaving, medical sources said that although his health had improved, the player should have stayed in hospital for another two or three weeks.

“It will take a long time till complete recovery,” the sources confirmed, adding Maradona had been unconscious for several days and close to death and had been breathing with the help of a ventilator.

On Friday, in his first television appearance since leaving hospital, he admitted he had been close to death.

In the luxurious home where he had since been staying, owned by a businessman friend at General Rodriguez, 50km to the north west of Buenos Aires, he had been surrounded by a nurse and three bodyguards under the supervision of Dr Cahe.

Maradona had been due to travel to Cuba on Thursday to continue his drug rehabilitation therapy.

The football star had chosen to live in Cuba since year 2000 when he had his first heart attack at Uruguayan resort Punta del Este, caused by a cocaine overdose.

Maradona has played golf since leaving hospital, he also played around with a football and had been seen several times without a shirt on in cold, autumnal weather.

On Tuesday night, he watched his favourite team Boca Juniors play Peru’s Sporting Cristal on TV in the last 16, first leg of the Libertadores Cup, the equivalent of the European Champions League for South American clubs.

During his time at General Rodriguez, Maradona has been accompanied by numerous friends though his ex-wife Villafane, who was at his bedside during his first hospitalisation, had stayed away. She will be once more by his bedside on Wednesday, according to Argentine television.