BUENOS AIRES, Sept 6: Former soccer great Diego Maradona can leave an Argentine psychiatric clinic where he was being held against his will for drug addiction, a judge ruled on Monday.

Maradona's family forced him to enter the clinic on the outskirts of Buenos Aires in May for cocaine addiction treatment after he was rushed to intensive care in April with a swollen heart and breathing problems.

The 43-year-old needed a judge's permission to leave the clinic. Judge Norberto Garcia Vedia allowed Maradona to continue his treatment in Cuba, which the Argentine has made his second home in recent years.

His lawyer told reporters he expected Maradona to leave the country later this week. He was bloated and barely able to speak at the time of his hospitalisation, but has since slimmed down and appeared more lucid in a television interview last month.

Maradona is regarded as one of the most gifted players in the history of soccer and led Argentina to victory at the 1986 World Cup finals. He says he has been fighting drug addiction for much of the last twenty years. -Reuters