Alfredo Cahe, personal physician to Diego Maradona, told media
on Tuesday that Argentine soccer star of the 1990s is "better than
ever mentally" and said the former player had made a tremendous
effort to recover from alcoholism.
Speaking to Buenos Aires radio station Radio Uno, Cahe denied
earlier reports that he had barred Maradona from traveling to the
Brazilian city of Puerto Alegre, where his favorite team, Boca
Juniors, will play Brazil team Gremio in the final of the Copa
Libertadores.
"Maradona himself told me yesterday he could not go, because at
the end of the week he will travel to Venezuela to give the first
kickoff in the Copa America, and that the two things meant too much
travel," said Cahe.
He said that Maradona plays tennis daily, and when the time
permits he will return to indoor football, a variant of soccer
known as showbol in Latin America.
Maradona, 46, was hospitalized on March 28 in a Guemes clinic
for blood pressure problems caused by excessive drinking. After 52
hours there, he moved first to the Ezeiza Hospital and then the Los
Arcos Sanatorium, which he left on May 6.
(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2007)