Maradona's condition remains 'delicate'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-21 10:18

Diego Maradona is expected to be hospitalized for some time, with doctors saying Tuesday his condition remained "delicate."

The Argentine soccer star was sedated and on a respirator, but responding to treatment for a heart problem and lung infection, doctors said.

"We're taking it one step at a time," Maradona's personal physician, Dr. Alfredo Cahe, said. "He's doing better today than yesterday."

A file photo shows Diego Maradona crying while walking around the playing field with his daughter Dalma after his farewell match attended by more than 50,000 fans that filled the Boca Juniors' Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires, November 10, 2001. Maradona remained in intensive care in a Buenos Aires hospital early April 20, 2004, more than 36 hours after falling ill with heart and breathing problems while watching a game at his former club Boca Juniors' stadium where he made his name.[Reuters]

Maradona, who led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title in Mexico, was put in intensive care Sunday after watching former team Boca Juniors play. It was the second time in recent years that the 43-year-old soccer great has been hospitalized.

His doctors say the emergency hospitalization was not drug-related, but have not commented on what prompted Maradona to enter the hospital.

He has been undergoing drug rehabilitation for cocaine abuse in Cuba.

His hospitalization has resulted in an outpouring of support throughout Argentina, where soccer is a national obsession and Maradona is treated like a hero.

Fans scrawled messages on notebook paper, T-shirts, flags or banners strung from apartment balconies that read "The people are with you!" and "You're immortal, Diego, Be Strong!"

Three women recited prayers while clutching rosaries, and a teenage boy beat a drum while yelling that Maradona was immortal.

"If Diego feels bad, all of Argentina feels the same way," said Manuel Luza, 16, as he waited outside the Suizo-Argentina hospital.

Some Argentines stayed tuned in other ways. Local television carried live round-the-clock updates. When news slowed, some channels carried old footage of Maradona from his playing days.

Seven years after retiring from the sport, Maradona remains an object of hero worship despite years of drug abuse and other off-field problems.

For many Argentines, Maradona's soccer triumphs during the 1980s and early 1990s provided a needed respite from years of military rule, a deflating defeat in a war with Britain for the Falkland Islands and recurring economic trouble.

"He's given us some of the happiest moments in our lives," said Juan Carlos Munoz, a 36-year-old accountant, before shouting: "Hang in there, Diego! We love you!"

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