Maradona's death, shocking story told at trial: He was swollen and unable to move.

Buenos Aires – An ordeal that lasted days, during which Diego Armando Maradona was only a ghost of his former self: this is the story of Nicolàs Taffarel, the champion's personal masseur, who testified at the trial for his death on November 25, 2020.

The emotional witness recalls the ordeal and the final days of the number 10, during the height of Covid, when he waited for hours for Maradona to be persuaded to give him a massage. But his testimony was indicative of how the medical staff treating the former footballer made contradictory decisions, so much so that a trial is underway to determine whether anyone was responsible for his death.

"At the beginning of his period of home isolation, Maradona recovered psychologically. He had regained his energy compared to before, when he struggled to start conversations or had memory lapses. Physically, in terms of motor skills, he was the same as always. He had difficulty walking and moving. He had swelling in his right leg," said Taffarel, who testified at the trial for Diego Maradona's death, providing details of his last meeting with him, as well as the decisions made by the medical staff.

Taffarel went to Diego Maradona's home, the Tigre club residence, where Maradona was staying to recover from surgery at Vicente López's Olivos clinic. "When he started to get worse, he wouldn't get out of bed, he wouldn't eat, he wouldn't change his clothes or wash. He didn't even want a massage. I was there in case he called me, but he didn't want anything. He was physically swollen, his legs were swollen. The swelling in his legs wasn't going away; on the contrary, it kept getting worse," he said.

"I asked if he was taking diuretics, and the nurse told me no, that they had been stopped. I don't know by whom," added the masseur, who was in constant contact with Maradona's so-called personal physician, Leopoldo Luque, one of the main defendants in the medical malpractice trial in Diego Maradona's death.

Taffarel explained that the former footballer had “eyes as swollen as a breast” and said he had spent 26 hours lying in the same position.

“He was swollen and wouldn't move from the bed; he'd been in the same position for two days. I think Luque told me he was going through a period of realizing what his life was like after he stopped drinking. He told me the swelling would go down when he got up, but it didn't; in fact, it got worse.”

Then he added: “One day, leaving Diego's house, I saw him so swollen that, driven by desperation, I wanted to help him. It was then that I started to get informed, and we were right in the phase of Covid where patients were being turned face down to stop the accumulation of gas (swelling) and prevent lung collapse.”

To those around Maradona, "I pointed out some things I'd noticed about him, but I didn't see any concrete action or a quick solution. I'd already established a bond with him and I wanted him to improve somehow, from one day to the next," the visibly moved witness concluded.