Diego Maradona 'grabbed' girlfriend by neck during plane bust-up

Argentine football legend Diego Maradona had reportedly grabbed his girlfriend by the neck during a bust-up on a plane.

According to passengers, Maradona, who was on his way to visit his baby son by former girlfriend Veronica Ojeda for the first time, had exchanged insults with his current girlfriend Rocio Oliva, before turning violent, the Daily Star reports.

According to the report, flight attendants and business-class travelers, including the wife of the governor of Argentina's Santa Fe province, had to step in to try to calm him down.

Silvia Troccoli, wife of the governor, said that she tried to talk to Maradona after he went 'into crisis' on the flight from Dubai, where he works as a sports ambassador, adding that the situation was not very nice.

An Argentine journalist, who was in economy class on the same flight, said that he was told by some business-class passengers that the scene between Maradona and Oliva was akin to a boxing match.

The report further said that the Argentinian star had later told bodyguards to elbow photographers when he touched down in Buenos Aires and also allegedly threw stones at cameramen on a motorway.

Maradona split from Ojeda, his partner of eight years, when she was four-and-a-half months pregnant with their son Diego Fernando.

The former cocaine addict, whose bad temper is infamous, was given a suspended prison sentence for shooting journalists with an air rifle outside his Buenos Aires home in 1994, the report added.