Alfredo Cahe, personal physician to Diego Maradona, told media on Tuesday that Argentine soccer star of the 1990s is "better than ever mentally" and said the former player had made a tremendous effort to recover from alcoholism.

Speaking to Buenos Aires radio station Radio Uno, Cahe denied earlier reports that he had barred Maradona from traveling to the Brazilian city of Puerto Alegre, where his favorite team, Boca Juniors, will play Brazil team Gremio in the final of the Copa Libertadores.

"Maradona himself told me yesterday he could not go, because at the end of the week he will travel to Venezuela to give the first kickoff in the Copa America, and that the two things meant too much travel," said Cahe.

He said that Maradona plays tennis daily, and when the time permits he will return to indoor football, a variant of soccer known as showbol in Latin America.

Maradona, 46, was hospitalized on March 28 in a Guemes clinic for blood pressure problems caused by excessive drinking. After 52 hours there, he moved first to the Ezeiza Hospital and then the Los Arcos Sanatorium, which he left on May 6.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2007)