Pele had COVID-19 and a heart rate below normal before being hospitalized last Tuesday.

"About three weeks ago he got Covid," Kely Nascimento said to Brazilian TV. "He is vaccinated, with all the vaccines, but because of the cancer medication, the chemotherapy, which is fragile, he got a lung infection. That's why he went to the hospital, because of the lung infection.

"It's serious because of his age and because he is being treated for cancer."