Diego Maradona fell and hit his head a week before his death and was left alone for three days after the accident, it has been claimed.
The Argentinian football legend, 60, passed away from “chronic heart failure” at his home in Buenos Aires last week.
According to local media, Maradona bumped his head after he fell inside his house, however he was reportedly not taken to hospital or given an MRI scan.
As the police is probing his death over allegations of medical negligence, a lawyer for his nurse reportedly said he hit his head during a fall in his house.
The 60-year-old Argentine football legend was receiving round-the-clock medical care at a house in a gated community where he was recuperating from surgery to remove a clot on his brain in early November.
A lawyer for Gisela Madrid, the star’s nurse, reportedly said:
“He fell and hit his head, but they didn’t take him to the hospital for an MRI or CT scan …”
A lawyer for Gisela Madrid, Maradona’s nurse, was quoted by Argentine media as saying: ‘Maradona fell on the Wednesday of the week before his death.
He said: “Maradona was unable to decide anything – after the fall he was left alone for three days in his room, without being seen by anyone and without being helped.”
His preliminary autopsy report said Maradona suffered “acute lung edema and chronic heart failure” and died in his sleep.
Maradona died of ‘acute lung edema and chronic heart failure’, according to a preliminary autopsy report, in his sleep at noon while resting at his home in Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina, last Wednesday.
On Saturday, it emerged that the iconic sportsman’s nurse admitted she lied about an early-morning check-up on him.
The sensational confession added more mystery to the circumstances surrounding his untimely death.
Initial reports pointed to a 24-year-old nephew, who was living with him, being the last person to see him alive over breakfast the day he died.
He was said to have told his relative: “I’m not feeling well” before going back to bed and dying in his sleep.
However, investigators have now been told he never got up on Wednesday to eat anything.
Police found a late-night sandwich lying uneaten in Maradona’s bedroom when he was discovered dead.
One night-shift nurse told cops she had seen the star “sleeping and breathing normally in bed” at around 6.30am on the morning of his death.
She then claimed she saw him alive at 9.20am – however the medic has now admitted she never went into the footballer’s room and that she was “made to lie”, local media reports.
It is not clear why the woman – who works for private medical firm Medidom – lied under oath.
Psychiatrist Susana Cosachov and psychologist Carlos Diaz, also part of the star’s care team, found his lifeless body shortly before midday.
Two of the star’s daughters Dalma and Giannina have told police they suspected the medication their father was given was not appropriate.
And at the weekend, Maradona personal Dr Leopoldo Luque had his office and home raided by cops amid reports the death is being treated as manslaughter
On Sunday, following the 40-minute search on his home, Dr Luque, a neurosurgeon, said he did “everything he could, up to the impossible” and considered himself a “friend” of Maradona.
He also revealed Maradona was battling addiction problems when he died.
During an emotional statement, the doctor said the footballer had issues with pills and booze, adding: “He punished himself in a way I wasn’t going to allow, not as a doctor but as a friend.
“You want to know what I am responsible for? For having loved him, for having taken care of him, for having extended his life, for having improved it to the end.”
Dr Luque said Maradona looked “very down” in the days leading up to his death and should have gone to rehab following the op.
“He should have gone to a rehabilitation centre. He didn’t want to,” he said, describing Maradona as “unmanageable”.
“I am the person who has been taking care of him. I’m proud of everything I’ve done. I have nothing to hide. I am at the disposal of justice,” he added.
