Staff Reporter.
(AFP) – Brazilian football legend Pele was watching the World Cup final Sunday while receiving a foot massage in a hospital as he battles colon cancer, according to his daughter, who posted a photograph of the icon.
“Foot massage and World Cup on TV,” Kely Nascimento wrote. The image shows a smiling woman rubbing the three-time World Cup champion’s left foot.
According to the latest medical bulletin, released Monday by the Sao Paulo hospital where he was admitted on November 29, the 82-year-old Pele remains “conscious and with stable vital signs.”
Kely Nascimento and Flavia Arantes, another of his daughters, have posted multiple messages on social media to reassure fans worldwide after rumors the superstar’s health was deteriorating.
On Saturday, Pele published a lengthy statement on Instagram in which he addressed his country’s ouster from the tournament in a quarterfinal match against Croatia.
“Despite the pain we feel for our elimination in the World Cup, I ask Brazilians to remember what brought us the five stars (the five World Cup titles) we wear on our chest.
“It is love that moves us,” he wrote.