Improving Maradona unlikely to return home in near future

“It’s not a good idea for him to return to Argentina. Firstly, because he never had peace there,” cahe said late on Sunday during a visit to Havana to check on his patient.

Cahe, who is coordinating Maradona’s medical treatment with a team of Cuban specialists, said the 39-year-old former player should remain on the communist-run Caribbean Island, where he arrived in mid-January, for the rest of 2000.

“The plan I am insisting on, if everything is possible, is that he remains in Cuba, at least until the end of the year, and then we will see,” cahe added. But he stressed the final decision would be taken by Maradona.

Maradona nearly died in January from a grave heart condition attributed to a drug problem and his overweight, unfit state.

But in Cuba, Maradona has discovered a much-needed, peaceful lifestyle. He has lost 12 kilograms, achieved a dramatic and encouraging recovery so far, taken regular exercise and not touched drugs since arriving, Cahe said.

“He has achieved abstinence (from drugs), he has achieved an understanding of abstinence. You have to understand what the short-term and long-term damages are,” said the doctor, who has been looking after Maradona since the player was 16.

“Diego is an example of what level of deterioration and damage you can reach through drugs,” Cahe added.

Maradona came to Cuba at the personal invitation of President Fidel Castro and is receiving free treatment.

His visible recovery is a publicity coup for Cuba’s health services, one of the Castro government’s Chief prides, and a sector in search of foreign clients to boost state coffers.

Cahe praised Cuba’s `excellent’ treatment of Maradona as a blessing from god. The Argentine is on a low-medication programme with plenty of freedom to move round Havana, despite some views that he should be completely isolated. (Reuters)