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'Needs help': Diego Maradona hospitalised in fresh health concern

Diego Maradona, pictured here at an Argentina First Division football match in March.
Diego Maradona looks on at an Argentina First Division football match in March. (Photo by ALEJANDRO PAGNI/AFP via Getty Images)

Diego Maradona has been admitted to hospital in Argentina with undisclosed ‘health problems” although it is not related to COVID-19.

Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and is widely considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, has been unwell for a while.

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His condition is not considered serious.

The champion footballer, 60, was taken to the Ipensa clinic in La Plata, about an hour from Buenos Aires. Maradona coaches the local club Gimnasia y Esgrima.

The former star was admitted to hospital to undergo tests, his doctor Leopoldo Luque said.

He had been feeling poorly for some time and will be held under observation for “at least three days”, Luque told reporters.

“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’s health issue not virus-related

Luque did not give specific details of Maradona's ailment but said it was not related to COVID-19.

Maradona 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.

Diego Maradona, pictured here during an Italian League match between Napoli and AC Milan.
Diego Maradona celebrates a goal during an Italian League match between Napoli and AC Milan. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

The former Napoli striker was 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.

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