Pelé ‘stable’ after being hospitalized in São Paulo

Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, who won the FIFA World Cup three times during his playing career, was hospitalized in São Paulo overnight on Tuesday, according to local media outlets. Pelé, 82, has been undergoing treatment after having a tumor removed from his colon last year but his latest hospital admission was not programmed, O Globo reported.

The medical team that treated the former Brazil forward said that he had suffered a general swelling of the body, an edema and cardiac issues, according to ESPN as cited by O Globo. The former player, who is widely considered to be the greatest of all time, underwent a battery of tests after Pelé's wife and a care-giver took the former player to the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in São Paulo.

Medical staff at the center who treated Pelé later released a statement saying he had been admitted “to re-evaluate the chemotherapy treatment of the colon tumor identified in September 2021.” The statement, signed by three doctors, added that Pelé has “full control of his vital functions and his condition is stable.”

Pelé's eldest daughter, Kely Nascimento, posted a message on Instagram on Wednesday stating there was no cause for alarm over her father’s health. “He is in the hospital regulating medication,” Nascimento wrote, as reported by Reuters. “There is no emergency or new dire prediction. I will be there for New Years and promise to post some pictures.”

Nascimento, who is attending the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, added that her siblings were visiting Brazil and that she would not be “rushing off to get an airplane.”

In 2019, Pelé was hospitalized due to a urinary tract infection and subsequently underwent surgery to remove kidney stones. He was diagnosed with colon cancer last year and has been receiving regular chemotherapy treatment since the removal of the tumor in September 2021.

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