Maradona briefly hospitalized for internal bleeding

Argentine football legend Diego Maradona left a clinic in here after being hospitalized five hours for internal bleeding that doctors discovered while doing a routine medical checkup.

A source close to the onetime football star said he underwent "an endoscopy and tested positive for a small stomach hernia caused by the gastric bypass surgery performed in Colombia in 2005 on Friday."

"From that hernia he lost a small trickle of blood and next week he will be operated on, but he won't be hospitalized and can carry on with his normal life," the source said.

Maradona was to attend the baptism this Saturday of his grandson Diego Matias at a chapel in Buenos Aires and the following week will undergo this minor surgery, the source added, reports Efe news.

As a result the man who led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup will have to delay considerably his return to Mexico to resume his duties as coach of second-division club Dorados de Sinaloa.

Maradona's agent, Matias Morla, had announced hours before he went to the clinic that he had "arranged his continuation" as coach of the Mexican club.

--IANS

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