BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Diego Maradona is expected to remain hospitalized for more than a week while doctors treat health problems attributed to excess alcohol consumption, overeating and smoking, his doctor said Saturday.
Alfredo Cahe, the soccer star's personal physician, said routine tests had detected some "alterations" affecting Maradona's liver, but he expected those liver functions would be normalized in coming days.
He said Maradona remained stable for a third straight day on treatment for withdrawal of alcohol and tobacco.
"We are evaluating things and I believe we are going to have him here more than a week," Cahe said Saturday after visiting Maradona in a 13th-floor hospital suite.
Maradona, 46, to the private Guemes Sanatorium where he remained under sedation while undergoing treatment for withdrawal from alcohol and tobacco remained stable under sedation for a third straight day.
In a daily update to reporters, Cahe said a proposal still was being considered to send Maradona for follow-up rehabilitation in Switzerland.
The clinic director, Hector Pezzella, told reporters on Friday that Maradona had to first successfully complete a period of withdrawal from "excessive consumption of alcohol." Pezzella said the possible side affects of abstinence from alcohol had required sedation.
Doctors have said Maradona's life is not in danger and detoxification was expected to take several days.
Maradona led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title and the final in 1990. In 2001, FIFA listed him as one of the greatest players in soccer history, alongside Pele. He retired in 1997.
But off the field, he has battled cocaine addiction and obesity. In March 2005, Maradona underwent gastric bypass surgery in Colombia, and lost as much as 110 pounds.
Maradona was hospitalized in 2000 in Uruguay and in 2004 in Buenos Aires, both times for life-threatening problems doctors tied to past cocaine use.