BUENOS AIRES - Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona will be released from hospital on Wednesday and taken to a recovery clinic where he will be treated for alcohol dependency, his lawyer Matias Morla told reporters.
The former Napoli and Boca Juniors player had emergency surgery last Tuesday for a subdural haematoma, a blood clot on the brain.
He was then kept in for longer than expected due to withdrawal symptoms caused by his sudden abstention from alcohol.
Morla said the 60-year-old coach of Gimnasia y Esgrima would leave hospital and go directly to a rehabilitation facility where only a few close friends would be allowed access.
On Wednesday, his lawyer discounted the possibility he could go to Venezuela or Cuba to recuperate. 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. Morla however said the former Napoli, Barcelona and Boca Juniors player would complete his recuperation in Argentina.
"Diego is whole and wants to undergo rehabilitation and he is scheduled to leave (hospital) today," Morla told reporters outside the clinic where he is recovering.
"The good thing is that Diego is together, Diego is solid."
The hospital stay was the latest in a string of health scares for the charismatic and controversial star who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest players of all time.
"Diego has gone through maybe the most difficult moment of his life and I think it was a miracle that they found this bleeding in his brain that could have cost him his life," Morla said.
Reuters