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´Surprising´ recovery for Maradona after 13 days in hospital
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentine football legend Diego Maradona made a "surprising" recovery after 13 days hospitalized for alcohol abuse treatment, his doctor said Wednesday.
The former Argentina captain, 46, was discharged from the hospital just after midnight Tuesday (0300 GMT Wednesday) accompanied by family members.
The star's "physical and psychological evolution is so good, even I am astonished," said Maradona's personal doctor, Alfredo Cahe, speaking at a mid-day press conference.
Maradona's recovery was "so surprising" that he may be healthy enough to go to the stadium on Sunday and see the annual clash between Argentina's two football titans, Boca Juniors -- his former club -- and River Plate, Cahe said.
Maradona, who is idolized in Argentina, has a special booth at the Boca stadium open to him for life.
The star was rushed to the Guemes Sanatorium on March 28 for treatment for toxic hepatitis induced by overdrinking. He lost between six and seven kilos (13 and 15 pounds) during the hospital stay.
It is not the first time Maradona, named one of the 20th century's greatest players after leading his squad to the 1986 World Cup title, has been hospitalized due to his excessive lifestyle.
But according to Cahe, this time Maradona has acknowledged his problems.
"Diego is very intelligent, extremely intuitive," Cahe said. "It is difficult to maintain with him a dialogue with questions and answers, but he knows how to listen."
Recent Argentine media reports have focused on Maradona's heavy drinking and obesity, noting he has put back on many pounds (kilograms) since undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2005 to get his weight under control.
Maradona "is lucid, coherent, calm," said Daniel Tejada, one of the two psychiatrists that looked after him at the hospital.
Hospital director Hector Pezzella however said that Maradona "must follow the prescribed treatment and diet."
The star will receive 24-hour control for at least two weeks at home by a team that includes a doctor, a psychiatrist and nurses, Pezzella said.
Doctors will consider after that whether to fly him to Switzerland for further treatment, Cahe said.
A family source at the hospital said Maradona would be taken to the home of his girlfriend Veronica Ojeda in the south side of Buenos Aires, but that could not be confirmed.
Maradona's career on and off the football field has been marred by repeated drug and alcohol abuse. He has suffered from chronic hepatitis since he contracted hepatitis B in 1991, while he played for Barcelona.
His problems only worsened after he retired from professional football in 1997. In 2000, Maradona had a heart attack in Uruguay following a cocaine overdose.
Four years later, another heart attack followed another overdose.
While he stayed in the hospital this time, he was accompanied for almost the entire period by his daughters Dalma and Giannina. At times as well his ex-wife Claudia Villafane was at his side.
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