The former Argentina captain and World Cup winner Diego Maradona will undergo surgery for a subdural haematoma, a blood clot on the brain, his personal physician said on Tuesday, after he was admitted to hospital in La Plata, about an hour from Buenos Aires. Maradona coaches the local club Gimnasia y Esgrima. The operation was expected to begin on Tuesday to address the condition, which is a pool of blood, often caused by a head injury, that can put pressure on the brain. Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s personal physician, said the procedure was a “routine surgery”. “We are going to operate today. He is lucid, he understands, he agrees with the intervention,” Luque said. Luque added that Maradona will be transferred to Olivos Clinic in Buenos Aires province. Maradona, 60, was admitted to the Ipensa clinic in La Plata on Monday for anaemia and dehydration. Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and played for Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli and Sevilla, last appeared in public on his 60th birthday last Friday before his side’s league match against Patronato. Dozens of fans of Gimnasia y Esgrima have converged on the hospital since Monday evening, waving flags and holding posters with messages of support as they waited for news of Maradona’s health. “What we want the most is for Diego to get out of all this. He can, he is the greatest, the greatest in the world,” said Diego Bermudez, 41, a Maradona fan waiting outside the hospital.