Diego Maradona was discharged on Sunday from the hospital where he has spent five days in intensive care and taken to another clinic where local media reports said he would undergo drug rehabilitation.
"Maradona has successfully overcome his emergency ... and for this reason has been discharged," said a statement issued by the Suizo-Argentina clinic in Buenos Aires where Maradona was readmitted last Wednesday, one week after suddenly discharging himself.
"He has been transferred to an assistance center to receive special treatment."
The statement did not say what the treatment was for and where he had gone but Argentine media quickly tracked him down to a clinic on the outskirts of Buenos Aires where they said he would stay for drug rehabilitation.
Reuters TV reporters said the clinic, situated in a wooded region, was heavily guarded by police and private security. Only hours after his arrival, small groups of onlookers and fans gathered nearby, some hanging "Get Well" messages on a gate.
Since 2000, Maradona, 43, has been living at a spa in Cuba where he has been undergoing a drugs rehabilitation program.
The 1986 World Cup winner returned to Argentina in March and spent his time playing golf, visiting his teenage daughters and appearing on TV chat shows before being rushed to hospital on April 18 with a swollen heart and breathing problems.
He spent 12 days in intensive care, including one week on an artificial respirator, before suddenly discharging himself.
Maradona then surprised the nation by playing golf at a plush country getaway the day he left hospital for the first time.
He was reportedly paid US$80,000 for a television interview two days later in which he said he "was dying" but that his fans had called him back from the tunnel of death.
Last Wednesday, he went back into hospital for what his personal doctor Alfredo Cahe said was a check-up.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier