BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA) – The former World Cup winner’s doctor said late on Tuesday that Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona showed recovery after successful surgery to treat a subdural hematoma, a blood clot on the brain.
The operation, after Maradona, 60, was admitted to hospital a day earlier, was to treat the clot, caused by a head injury, and which could put pressure on the brain.
Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s neurosurgeon and personal physician, told, “I was able to evacuate the hematoma successfully and Diego tolerated the surgery very well.”
He added, saying the procedure had taken around 80 minutes, “The steps now are observation, but it is controlled. It will depend on how he does. It is not highly complex, but it is still brain surgery.”
Luque earlier said the procedure was “routine surgery” and that Maradona had been “lucid” and completely understood and agreed with the procedure.
Maradona was admitted to the Ipensa clinic in La Plata, Argentina, on Monday for anemia and dehydration, before he was taken to Olivos Clinic in Buenos Aires province.
Around 50 fans gathered in front of the Olivos Clinic, celebrated when reports of his recovery started to emerge, chanting: “Diego, Diego!”
Maradona last appeared in public on his 60th birthday before his side’s league match against Patronato.
Dozens of fans of Gimnasia y Esgrima had gathered in front of the hospital since Monday evening.
Diego Bermudez, 41, a Maradona fan waiting outside the hospital, “What we want the most is for Diego to get out of all this. He can be, he is the greatest, the greatest in the world.”
Another fan, Oscar Medina, said: “Diego is fighting inside with medics. Hopefully God blesses the medics, to move on from this. His people are out here on the street, hearts beating.”