Former Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    BUENOS AIRES, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona plans to clean up his drug and alcohol problems, his doctor said Thursday.

    "I see in him the intention to rehabilitate himself soon," said Hector Pezzella, director of the Guemes clinic in Buenos Aires where Maradona, 46, has been for a week with hepatitis caused by alcohol.

    "He knows that checking in is for the best," Pezzella told reporters.

    He said the former captain of the Argentine squad was under sedation to avoid alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and so family visits were limited to his former wife, Claudia Villafane, daughters Dalma and Giannina and a few others.

    The doctor said that the alcohol withdrawal episodes were less frequent and Maradona was improving since he was admitted on March 28.