Argentine football hero Diego Maradona was improving favorably from hepatitis brought on by alcohol abuse, nearly a week after being hospitalised.
BUENOS AIRES: Argentine football great Diego Maradona is making good progress in a Buenos Aires hospital where he is being treated for alcohol-induced hepatitis caused by two or three months of heavy drinking, doctors said.
Maradona, 46, who is widely revered as one of the game’s greatest players, has struggled with cocaine addiction and obesity since he retired in 1997.
In his latest health crisis, the Argentine was admitted to hospital six days ago for alcohol abuse.
“Maradona is doing very well from a clinical viewpoint,” Hector Pezzella, medical director at the private Guemes clinic, told a news conference on Tuesday.
Maradona’s personal doctor, Alfredo Cahe, said on Monday the former Argentine captain had alcoholic hepatitis and that he expected him to remain in hospital for another two weeks.
“The situation that caused him to be hospitalised is a situation of intoxication that, according to doctor Cahe, was brought on by excessive alcohol consumption for two or three months,” Pezzella said, adding that Maradona remained under sedation to help curb alcohol cravings.
"We will see how the daily checks go. A patient with his pathological symptoms should be hospitalised at least two weeks, but Maradona is Maradona and you never know," Cahe said.
After his hospitalisation six days ago, Maradona's health "stabilised and improved", but he is on sedatives to remain calm, said Cahe. "Diego entered a depressive period and his liver problem, which he has suffered since 1983, did not matter to him. The depression triggered a great many food and alcohol binges," Cahe said.
Maradona — who together with Pele were named by football’s governing body, FIFA, as the two greatest players of the 20th century — had appeared overweight and smoking cigars in photographs taken soon before he was taken to hospital last week.
Maradona was hospitalised in 2000 and 2004, both times with severe heart problems stemming from cocaine use. He underwent drug rehabilitation in Cuba and Argentina before a stomach-stapling operation in 2005 helped him lose weight.
Later that year, he went on to host his own TV talk show after declaring himself fully recovered.
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