Pelé hospitalized but daughter says there’s no emergency

Former Brazilian soccer champion Pelé returned to a hospital amid his battle with cancer, but his daughter says there’s no “emergency.”

“He is in the hospital regulating medication,” Kely Nascimento wrote Wednesday on Instagram.

Nascimento shared the post to address “alarm in the media” after ESPN Brazil reported Pelé, 82, was being treated for “general swelling” at a Sao Paulo medical center.

“Really and truly, we appreciate the concern and love!” she wrote.

Pelé, who led Brazil to three World Cup titles, began chemotherapy last year after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor from his colon.

He is in stable condition, the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo confirmed Wednesday, saying doctors admitted Pelé “for a reevaluation of the chemotherapeutic treatment of the tumor.”

Pelé, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, was on Brazil’s first three World Cup-winning teams in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and remains the country’s all-time leading scorer with 77 goals in 92 international games.

In 1999, the International Olympic Committee selected Pelé as its athlete of the century.

Pelé has been active on social media throughout the 2022 World Cup, writing Tuesday in an Instagram post that he’s “enjoying watching” Brazil’s games.

“I was only a kid back in 1958 but I remember it like it was yesterday,” he wrote earlier this week. “It’s always been my greatest honour to represent Brasil but to do it so in the biggest competition on the planet, score important goals and eventually lift the trophy… it was a dream come true!”

With News Wire Services