Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona has been admitted to hospital in La Plata to undergo tests, according to local media and his personal doctor Leopoldo Luque, as quoted by The Guardian.
Maradona’s condition is not thought to be “serious” or COVID-related, Luque said, even though the footballer had recently been in self-isolation after one of his bodyguards had caught the virus.
Since then, the 1986 FIFA World Cup champion was spotted on Friday during his 60th birthday celebration, shortly before his team’s match against Patronato, apparently after his own test for the virus came back negative.
According to reports, Maradona did not stay to watch the game and looked seemingly unhealthy during the occasion.
Luque says that the former Napoli star will stay in the Ipensa clinic in La Plata for “at least three days” under observation as he was “not well psychologically and that has an impact on his physical wellbeing”.
“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,” his doctor revealed.
“Diego is a person who is sometimes excellent and sometimes not so much. He could be 10,000 times better. And bringing him here helps him. It’s very difficult being Maradona,” Luque added.
Maradona, who is believed to be one of the greatest football players of all time, has suffered a number of health conditions throughout his life, some of them related to his drug and alcohol abuse in the past, including heart and respiratory problems that resulted in him being sent to hospital back in 2004. During Russia’s 2018 World Cup, he was caught on camera passed out while watching the Argentina-Nigeria match. In January 2019, the Gimnasia y Esgrima coach was admitted to hospital due to internal stomach bleeding.
