Associated Press

Bogota, March 9:

It took a lot of work and patience to persuade Diego Maradona to undergo gastric bypass surgery to help him loose weight, but the operation offers the former World Cup hero a chance to start a new life, his doctor said.

“I made him see that it was very important for his health and behaviour to lose weight,” Angelica Maria Quintero said.

Maradona, who became unrecognisably obese in recent years, successfully underwent a procedure sometimes called a stomach staple at a clinic in Cartagena on Saturday, and is expected to leave the hospital in the coming days. Doctors say he is in high spirits. Quintero said she spent a month and half preparing for the operation with Maradona in Cuba, where he was struggling to overcome cocaine addiction, before taking him to Colombia in early February.

“Diego Maradona is now super well, he’s happy, and I am pleased to say that he will likely be much better than before.” Francisco Holguin, the surgeon who operated on Maradona, said the surgery aims to trim his weight by 50 kilograms within a year.