Football legend Pele is suffering a series of health problems which include “a kind of a depression” and according to his son’s latest interview, he cannot walk normally and barely leaves home now.
“He’s pretty fragile in terms of his mobility… and that makes him suffer a kind of depression,” Pele’s son Edinho was quoted as saying by PTI via AFP.
“Just imagine, he’s the ‘King,’ he was always such an imposing figure, and now he can’t walk normally. He gets very shy, very embarrassed about that,” Edinho said in an interview originally published in Globesporte.com.
The three-time World Cup winner Pele, who is often regarded as the greatest-ever footballer, has been in and out of the hospital in recent years and has been unable to recover fully from a hip operation, leaving himself dependent on a walker.
“He’s doing a bit better than when he was in a wheelchair recently, but he still has a hard time getting around,” said the 49-year-old Edinho.
Pele’s public appearance has become increasingly rare and was last seen in April 2019. He had travelled to Paris for a promotional with French and PSG’s superstar footballer Kylian Mbappe. However, Pele had to be hospitalised soon after the event due to kidney problems.
The 79-year-old, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, survives only on a single kidney. A broken rib during a match had injured the other one and forced the doctors to remove it.