Diego Maradona remains in intensive care in a Buenos Aires clinic after being admitted to hospital with heart and breathing problems.
However, the former player’s family doctor, Alfredo Cahe, denied reports that Maradona had taken an overdose of cocaine.
“It is not related to an overdose,” Cahe told local radio on Monday.
“Lately Maradona was not (consuming) cocaine.
“I wouldn’t say his condition is extreme. His condition is reserved. He arrived at hospital in a serious state with breathing difficulty and a swollen heart. He was very feverish.”
Maradona, 43, was breathing with the help of a respirator.
He had been taken to hospital after watching a game at his former club Boca Juniors’ stadium.
Well-wishers gathered outside the Suizo-Argentina clinic on Monday morning.
Although he enjoyed an illustrous playing career with Boca Juniors, Barcellona and Napoli, it was Maradona’s exploits in international football which earned him widespread adulation in his native Argentina.
Maradona led Argentina to a 3-2 victory over West Germany in the 1986 World Cup final and four yearrs later was the inspiration behind his country’s march to a second successive final which resulted in a 1-0 defeat to West Germany.
In 1991 he failed a drug test for cocaine and was banned for 15 months. He played in his fourth World Cup in the United States in 1994 but tested positive for drugs and sent home from the competition in disgrace.
