Pele leaves hospital after colon cancer treatment

Sao Paulo (AFP) – Brazilian football great Pele was discharged Thursday from the hospital where he was admitted four days earlier for colon cancer treatment, the establishment announced.

The 81-year-old was “in a good and stable clinical condition,” the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo said in a statement. 

Considered by many the greatest footballer of all time, Pele is the only player in history to have won three World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970). 

Known in Brazil as “O Rei,” or “The King,” he will continue visiting the hospital at least once a month for check-ups and to continue chemotherapy for a colon tumor detected last September, according to his family. 

In February, the ailing Pele spent two weeks in hospital for cancer treatment complicated by a urinary tract infection. 

Before his cancer diagnosis, which saw Pele hospitalized for a month last year, the former Santos and Brazil national star had been hospitalized to have a kidney stone removed in 2019 and for a urinary tract infection in 2014. 

At the time, he had to undergo dialysis on his only remaining kidney — the other was removed in the 1970s due to an injury. 

Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, has also had his mobility reduced by hip problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair.