Pele recovering well from hip surgery in New York

Published 01/15/2016, 3:09 PM EST

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Pele is recovering well from a small operation to repair his replacement hip, an official who works with the former Brazil, Santos and New York Cosmos great said on Thursday.

The 75-year-old triple World Cup winner had the preparatory operation at the Special Surgery hospital in New York on Dec. 3, Pepito, his long-time press officer, told Reuters.

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“(Pele) took advantage of his holidays to spend time in New York with his daughters and granddaughters and he had this small reparatory procedure,” Pepito said.

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He is currently undergoing physiotherapy and “everything is under control,” Pepito added.

Pele had a new hip fitted in 2012 and has had several other health issues since. He spent two weeks in hospital for a urinary infection in 2014 and last May had prostate surgery.

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With more than 1,280 career goals, and a record three World Cup titles, Pele, whose given name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, is considered by many to be the greatest soccer player of all time.

(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes, Writing by Andrew Downie; editing by Ken Ferris)

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.