Soccer legend Diego Maradona said on Friday he stared death in the face just before his 12-day hospitalization for heart and lung trouble and that Argentina's soccer fans helped him pull through.
"I was dying," a cheerful but dumpy Maradona told TV talk show host Susana Gimenez in his first public appearance since the illness, speaking slowly and sometimes incoherently.
One day after discharging himself from the hospital, Maradona played golf at a plush country getaway outside Buenos Aires and mooned a TV crew hovering in a helicopter overhead.
Just days before, doctors said he was in critical condition, heavily sedated and on an artificial respirator.
"I was hanging by a thread," the 43-year-old World Cup-winner, regarded as one of the greatest players in soccer history, said in a raspy voice.
"I started to enter the tunnel (of death) and Boca fans pulled me back, and behind them came fans of River, San Lorenzo, Racing, Huracan, Independiente," the former Boca Juniors club player said.
"It would be unfair not to give my respect and admiration to all of Argentina's soccer fans for their support," he said in the exclusive interview with local TV station Telefe.
Hundreds of fans had left cards and pictures of their hero outside the posh clinic where Maradona was hospitalized, while others prayed with Rosary beads.
Maradona -- whose green T-shirt did little to hide his ample gut -- said he planned to stay in Buenos Aires for another week and travel to Cuba and Italy afterward. He has lived in Cuba for most of the past four years while being treated for cocaine addiction.
At the peak of his form, the controversial star led Argentina to a 3-2 triumph over West Germany in the 1986 World Cup final, after a quarterfinal victory over England in which he famously said "the hand of God" helped him score a disputed goal.
But in 1991 he failed a dope test for cocaine and was banned for 15 months.
Maradona played in his fourth World Cup in the United States in 1994, and was thrown out of the tournament after failing a drug test.
Asked what he wanted from life, Maradona responded, "I just want to continue living without bothering anyone, without getting involved with anybody."
He also said he would like to tour the world to thank those who prayed for his health, and he hopes to visit Iraq and Afghanistan soon to show solidarity with people there.
Maradona's health problems may have eased, but his father was hospitalized on Friday with a respiratory problem. The family doctor told reporters that "Don Diego" was doing well.
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