Brazil legend Pele has not been hospitalised with exhaustion despite reports to the contrary, according his spokesperson.
The 77-year-old has been resting at home since pulling out of a dinner that the Football Writers Association (FWA) had arranged in his honour, his representative Jose Fornos Rodrigues said.
The FWA previously issued a statement claiming that Pele was taken to hospital in his native Brazil after collapsing from exhaustion, but Rodrigues has dismissed such reports as “fake news”.
“He just didn’t want to make a long and stressful trip to London, in and out of who knows how many planes and airports,” BBC Sport quotes him as saying. “That’s all.”
Pele, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, has required medical treatment for kidney and prostate problems in recent years.
