Bed rest for Maradona; hepatitis diagnosed

BUENOS AIRES: Football legend Diego Maradona is suffering from hepatitis brought on by excessive alcohol consumption, his personal doctor said on Monday.

The diagnosis requires that the former Argentine captain spend two weeks in bed, Alfredo Cahe added.

"The hospitalisation will not last less than two weeks," Cahe told the Mitre radio station.

"The acute type of hepatitis he has now is a case brought on by alcoholism," the doctor said.

On Sunday, Cahe and hospital director Hector Pezzella announced that routine examinations had shown a "favourable evolution compared to the previous days".

But Cahe said Monday: "He was suffering from a mix of many things and now it is definitely a case of hepatitis.

"At first, I feared it was pancreatitis. I was constantly checking Diego and I think that this time we've nailed it."

Maradona, 46, has been called one of the greatest players of the last century but his career on and off the pitch has been marred by repeated drug and alcohol abuse. He retired from professional football in 1997.

He has suffered from chronic hepatitis since he contracted hepatitis B in 1991, while he played for Barcelona.

Maradona, who suffered a heart attack in 2004 following a cocaine overdose, was rushed to the hospital from his parents' house late Wednesday with unknown symptoms. 

Days earlier Cahe had said the former Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli star might leave for Switzerland for treatment after his weight had again ballooned.

Newspaper photographs early this month appeared to show he had regained many of the 50 kilograms (110 pounds) lost after he had gastric bypass surgery in 2005.    Another showed him in a Buenos Aires nightclub with an injured nose after falling off a chair.

He had also been in the news after Argentina's central bank said it had begun collecting information about Maradona's bank accounts, suggesting the football great was under investigation for tax evasion.