Argentina legend Diego Maradona has said he is "very much alive" and is angry that the media blew his recent health scare out of proportion.
Maradona was treated by paramedics at the World Cup stadium in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Tuesday after watching his former team secure a dramatic victory over Nigeria.
He claimed a problem with his neck caused him to suffer a "decompensation" but denied reports that he had been hospitalised.
Maradona, who captained Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986, looked in good health while making an appearance in his Telesur's 'De La Mano del 10" show on Wednesday.
"I'm perfect, I've never been better," he said when asked how he was feeling. "I was shocked that [reports suggested] that there had been a stretcher, an ambulance. Nothing happened ... We were all together, the Telesur team and my team, and we could not believe how social networks started to make a big lie, which made no sense, go viral like that.
"It makes me a bit angry, because my sister, yesterday she made me whistle on the phone to see if I was OK, and I did [whistle]. What else do you want me to do?' I asked her. My brother in Italy, my nephew in the United States were worried, because of course the bad news travels much faster than the good news.
"I am very much alive, I tell everyone that watches Telesur and the world that I'm very well looked after. To those who are mediocre, not even Victor Hugo can make them good."
Maradona, who is in Moscow where Argentina will take on France in the round-of 16-game, revealed that he plans to spend time with his nine-year-old grandson, Benjamin, whose father is Argentina international Sergio Aguero.
Aguero was married to Maradona's daughter Gianinna.
"I saw Benjamin," Maradona said. "I greeted him and we are going to see each other. His father [Aguero] and his family have given their disposition so that he can come here and spend two days with me at my hotel."
