Diego Maradona's Final Days: A Masseur's Heartbreaking Testimony
Diego Maradona spent his final days bedridden, swollen with fluid and seemingly resigned to the end, according to stark testimony from his personal masseur at the trial examining the circumstances of his death.
Nicolas Taffarel, who worked closely with the Argentinian icon, described a man who had all but stopped living before his heart finally failed in November 2020.
“Diego wouldn’t get out of bed, he didn’t want to eat, he didn’t want to wash, he didn’t want to look after his personal hygiene,” Taffarel told the court on Thursday, his voice cracking as he revisited those last hours with the 1986 World Cup winner.
A warning that went unanswered
Taffarel said he had pleaded with Maradona’s medical team to increase their presence around the former captain, insisting they should be visiting “every day”. The court heard an audio message in which he raised the alarm about Maradona’s deteriorating condition.
“I reported the issues I observed with him, but I saw no concrete action or swift resolution,” he said.
The picture he painted was grim. Maradona, just 60, lay bloated in his bed, his legs visibly swollen. Taffarel recalled being told by doctors to stay calm, reassured that the symptoms would pass.
“The doctors told me to calm down, that these symptoms would pass. When you’re anxious, you put your trust in them; you tell yourself it will pass, that everything will sort itself out. But it didn’t pass.”
Two weeks earlier, Maradona had undergone surgery. On paper, he was under medical supervision. In reality, according to this testimony, he was slipping away in plain sight.
“Nothing, that’s it”
The most haunting moment came as Taffarel relived his final meaningful exchange with Maradona on November 24, the day before the legend died.
He tried to coax him into getting up, into sharing a simple mate, the herbal drink woven into everyday Argentinian life.
“He said to me: ‘I don’t want anything, Taffita, that’s it.’ I asked him: ‘What do you mean, that’s it?’ and he replied: ‘Nothing, that’s it’,” Taffarel told the court.
In Spanish, “ya está” hangs in the air. It can mean “it’s all right”. It can also mean “it’s over”. A casual phrase in most conversations, it sounded, in this setting, like a farewell.
The following day, Maradona died alone in his bed of heart failure and acute pulmonary oedema, a build-up of fluid in the lungs that suffocates the body from within.
A trial with heavy stakes
Seven healthcare professionals are on trial in Argentina, accused of potential negligence that may have contributed to Maradona’s death. The proceedings, which began in mid-April, cut to the heart of how one of football’s greatest figures was treated in his final days.
The defendants face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty. All deny responsibility.
Most have leaned on their specialisms and the narrow definition of their roles, arguing that their duties did not directly intersect with the clinical causes of death. Their defence rests on the claim that the chain of care, and the fatal outcome, cannot be pinned on any one of them.
The court now has to pick through those blurred lines: who was in charge, who should have acted, who failed to respond when those closest to Maradona, like Taffarel, sensed that something was badly wrong.
The trial is expected to stretch beyond this month. The questions it raises about duty, trust and the way Argentina’s greatest footballing son spent his last night are likely to linger far longer.
