Football legend Pele was taken to a Paris hospital as a precaution on Wednesday after suffering from a “urinary infection” but is “doing well”, according to members of his entourage.
The 78-year-old Brazilian three-time World Cup winner wasreceiving antibiotics prior to the long flight back to his home country, hisspokesman and other sources told AFP.
The spokesman said the infection was “under control” andPele would be discharged from hospital in “a day or two”.
Pele, who won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970, had beenin Paris for a promotional appearance alongside France star Kylian Mbappe.
The declining health of the player known as ‘O Rei’ has beena cause for concern in recent times, and the planned meeting with Mbappe hadalready been postponed last November.
Previously, Pele had admitted to not being up to the task oflighting the flame at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Before that, he spent time in intensive care in Brazil inlate 2014 following a kidney complaint.
“I wasn’t afraid of dying as I am a man with three hearts,” he joked at the time, alluding to the translation from Portuguese of the name of the town of his birth, Tres Coracoes.