Maradona hospitalised for routine check-up

Argentine football legend Diego Maradona was taken to a Buenos Aires hospital for a routine medical check-up, his daughter Gianinna said.

Gianinna, 25, told La Red radio Thursday that the former footballer and coach had checked into the Sanatorio de los Arcos hospital in the northern Palermo district of the capital, reports Xinhua.

"When I got there he was watching the San Lorenzo game seated in a chair," she said, referring to the Argentine team's match against Paraguay's Nacional, in the Libertadores Cup final.

His daughter denied Maradona, 53, had been hospitalised with an emergency, adding "he fell asleep watching El Chavo (a character in a popular Mexican TV programme)."

Doctors were looking into the possible need for "a stomach operation and other things they have to do to a person who is 53," she said.

Gianinna acknowledged the former footballer "overextends himself" to maintain his weight.

In March, the 1986 Mexico World Cup champion underwent gastric bypass surgery in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to bring down his 120-kilo weight.

Since then, he has lost more than 30 kilos, according to his personal doctor Alfredo Cahe.