The Hindu : Sport / World View : Maradona undergoing rigid rehabilitation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 27, 2004

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Sport - World View

Maradona undergoing rigid rehabilitation

Buenos Aires: Diego Maradona is undergoing a rigid rehabilitation for drug abuse and is considering whether to seek further treatment outside of his native Argentina, his doctor has said.

The 43-year-old great, who led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title, has been at a psychiatric hospital in a Buenos Aires suburb since early May, when he was rushed to a private clinic for lung and heart problems.

Dr. Alfredo Cahe, Maradona's personal physician, said he appeared to be taking drug rehab seriously ``for the first time in his life.''

``He's adapting well,'' Cahe told Radio 10. ``He's undergone previous treatments but nothing as rigorous as this''.

Maradona, an admitted cocaine addict, had been undergoing drug rehabilitation in Cuba for the last four years before he was hospitalised twice after returning to Argentina in April on personal business. Each time, he was placed in intensive care.

Cahe said he was consulting with Maradona and his family to see if he should continue treatment outside the country.

He said Maradona had finally agreed to accept treatment after initial resistance.

Maradona was moved to the psychiatric hospital at the urging of his family, which repeatedly had said drugs had nothing to do with his emergency hospitalisations — the latest health problems for the football great.

In January 2000, Maradona was hospitalised in Uruguay and diagnosed with a severe heart condition. — AP

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