Diego Maradona, still in intensive care four days after being taken to hospital with heart and breathing problems, may be taken off a respirator this week.
"The critical stage is passing, Diego is very strong," his doctor Alfredo Cahe was quoted by the daily newspaper Clarin as saying in an interview with the radio station Diez.
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The last official news on Maradona's health was given on Wednesday afternoon when the Suizo-Argentina clinic issued a statement saying he was still in intensive care and needed help breathing.
Cahe arrived and left the hospital without talking to reporters on Wednesday.
Maradona's daughter Dalma said in a radio interview on Thursday morning that her father, a bloated figure barely recognisable from the man who led Argentina to World Cup victory in 1986, was improving.
"He's getting better every day," she said. "I'm happy that he's better every day."
Maradona's fans have kept a vigil outside the clinic since Sunday when the 43-year-old arrived in a feverish condition with breathing difficulties and a swollen heart. Doctors say he has also developed pneumonia.
The fans have lit candles and plastered the walls with messages of support.
Supporters of Boca Juniors, the club he has supported since he was a boy and where he played for one year before moving to Barcelona, chanted Maradona's name throughout Wednesday's Libertadores Cup match against Bolivar.
The Boca team unfurled a banner with a message of support before kickoff.
(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner)