Notably, Pele has suffered from a series of health problems in the recent past including a urinary tract infection which forced him to get hospitalised for 13 days last April.
Kolkata: Brazilian football legend Pele addresses a press conference in Kolkata, on Oct 12, 2015. (Photo: Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS)
Three-time World Cup winner Brazilian legend Pele is suffering from a “kind of depression” as per his son. Now, Pele has said that health issues are in fact a routine part for people of his age.
“I am not avoiding fulfilling the commitments in my always-busy schedule,” Pele was quoted as saying by IANS via a BBC Sport Report.
“I have good days and bad days. That is normal for people of my age. I am not afraid, I am determined, confident in what I do,” he added.
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Notably, Pele has suffered from a series of health problems in the recent past including a urinary tract infection which forced him to get hospitalised for 13 days last April.
The 79-year-old former Santos and New York Cosmos striker has also picked up complications related to hip replacement surgery and needs a frame to walk.
“He is very sheepish, reclusive,” his son Edinho had told TV Globo.
“Imagine, he’s the king, he was always such an imposing figure and today he can’t walk properly. He’s embarrassed, he doesn’t want to go out, be seen, or do practically anything that involves leaving the house,” he added.
Edinho, who also donned the Santos colours as a goalkeeper in the 1990s, had added that his father had not properly recovered from an operation in 2012 in which a part of his hip bone was removed and replaced with titanium prosthesis.
“He’s pretty fragile,” Edinho said.
“He had a hip replacement and didn’t have an adequate or ideal rehabilitation. So he has this problem with mobility and that has set off a kind of depression,” he added.
The Brazilian legend scored a world record tally of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches in his 21-year long career. He represented the Brazil International team on 91 occasions in which he netted 77 goals.
(With inputs from IANS)
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