Associated Press

Buenos Aires, May 5:

Diego Maradona was rushed to a hospital before dawn on Wednesday, days after he abruptly ended nearly two weeks of emergency treatment in intensive care for heart and lung problems. There was no immediate comment by doctors, following the report by Argentina’s independent TodoNoticias broadcast network. The network said the 43-year-old former soccer idol was taken in an ambulance to Suizo-Argentina Clinic where he spent 12 days in April.

The network went live with images of an ambulance at the private clinic in Buenos Aires where Maradona was admitted on April 18 with chest pains and placed on a respirator. At the time, doctors listed Maradona in critical condition and said he was battling a heart inflammation condition and a lung infection. The network said Maradona’s personal physician, Alfredo Cahe, had accompanied Maradona to the hospital. Local reports said Maradona got down from the ambulance and walked into the hospital under his own power. After leaving the hospital last Thursday, Maradona holed up in a country estate some 60-kilometre north of Buenos Aires where he spent his days playing golf and receiving well-wishers. The Argentine great reportedly had been making plans to return to Cuba, where he has been living over the past four years.