BUENOS AIRES - Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona is recovering well from brain surgery and is already pressuring doctors to let him go home, his personal physician, Leopoldo Luque, said on Thursday.
“The recovery continues to go very well,” Luque told reporters outside the Buenos Aires clinic where Maradona was staying. “He is very keen to leave, he feels like he is ready to be discharged.”
On Wednesday, his lawyer discounted the possibility he could go to Venezuela or Cuba to recuperate.
"The last medical report was excellent," said Matias Morla. "Let's stay strong and we'll get through this."
Maradona has previously expressed his fondness for the two nations and he spent several years in Cuba undergoing drug rehabilitation at the start of the century.
But Morla said the former Napoli, Barcelona and Boca Juniors player would complete his recuperation in Argentina, where he is coach of first division side Gimnasia y Esgrima.
Luque said doctors want Maradona, 60, to stay another day and recover from Monday's operation on a subdural haematoma, a blood clot on the brain.
However, the former Barcelona, Napoli and Boca Juniors player could still leave the clinic and head home later on Thursday.
“He can walk, he is speaking to me, he is much more lucid,” Luque said, less than a week after Maradona looked weak and ponderous before a match in Buenos Aires.
Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest players of all time, has suffered frequent periods in hospital over the years, often due to his extravagant lifestyle.
Reuters