Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona has spent the better part of three weeks in a hospital in Buenos Aires for a variety of health problems related to excessive eating and drinking. The 46-year-old Maradona is now officially being treated for "alcoholic hepatitis," and will now be moved to a psychiatric clinic to treat his alcoholism. On April 13, the 1986 World Cup champion returned to the hospital complaining of abdominal pain, 48 hours after being released from 10 days of treatment.
Maradona was hospitalized in 2000 and 2004 for heart problems related to cocaine abuse. He has also struggled with obesity and alcoholism since he retired from soccer in 1997. Doctors say his current problems stem from his "addictive personality" disorder rather than drug abuse.
Maradona's personal physician, Dr. Alfredo Cahe, told Radio Uno that doctors had persuaded the former Argentine captain to undergo rehabilitation at a psychiatric center, as he did three years ago. "Diego is becoming aware of the seriousness of his condition," he said. "He didn't have any idea how the alcohol had affected him, the pains ... that he blacked out, that he was in shock, the vomiting."
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