Argentina's Maradona sedated in hospital

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 29 (Reuters) Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona was given sedatives to curb alcohol cravings at a Buenos Aires hospital today after falling ill from excessive eating, drinking and smoking, doctors said.

The 46-year-old has battled cocaine addiction in the past and had a stomach-stapling operation in 2005. That helped him shed 66 pounds (30 kg), but he has appeared overweight in recent photographs.

Maradona's doctor, Dr. Alfredo Cahe, said family problems had triggered the latest health crisis.

''He's out of danger and doing satisfactorily ... All the tests are routine,'' medical director Hector Pezzella told reporters, adding that Maradona's condition was not drug-related. ''He's sedated ... due to alcohol abstinence.'' He said Maradona had friends and his two daughters at his bedside.

Fans wearing Argentina's national soccer shirt and banners from Maradona's former club Boca Juniors gathered at the private Guemes hospital where he was admitted late on Wednesday, some shouting ''Come on Diego, hang in there.'' Cahe said Maradona had woken up in the early hours today and tried to leave.

''He insulted me. He didn't want to be there. They sedated him again and he fell asleep,'' Cahe said on radio.

''Diego was feeling pretty down because of family problems, which I'm not going to go into. He had some serious things he couldn't deal with and that had got him depressed.'' Maradona's trip to hospital was a reminder of the repeated health problems -- many of them drug-related --- he has faced since retiring from the game in 1997.

Cahe said just days ago that Maradona had put on weight and smoked too many cigars, and was planning a trip to Switzerland to get himself back in shape.

In 2000, Maradona was hospitalized with a severe heart problem while on vacation in Uruguay and tested positive for cocaine before undergoing drug rehabilitation in Cuba.

Four years later, he spent 10 days in intensive care with heart and breathing problems and reentered rehabilitation.

REUTERS PDS KP2316