The 43-year-old soccer great at times rambled in slurred speech during a one-hour interview with Argentine talk show host Susana Gimenez and offered thanks to his fans for their support during his ordeal.

"I want to thank the people who prayed for me," he said. "I saw death up close and I wanted them to cover me, to caress me."

His eyes welling with tears, Maradona added: "When God decides its time, I guess he'll come for us."

Maradona spoke hours after his father, who is also named Diego, was hospitalized.

The elder Maradona checked into the Institute Sacre Coeur in downtown Buenos Aires with a respiratory infection, said a hospital spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

During his first full day out of the hospital, Maradona played golf and walked on a secluded country estate on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

It remained unclear what steps the soccer idol would take next with his medical care after he unexpectedly checked out of the private Suizo-Argentina Clinic on Thursday afternoon.

When he left the hospital, Maradona's medical team said he would seek "more personalized treatment" with help from his own doctor.

But Maradona didn't say whether he intended to keep up his treatment in Argentina or return to Cuba, where he moved four years ago to undergo drug rehabilitation for cocaine addiction.

He instead said he planed to spend the summer in Italy. "I have some work there," he said.

Maradona returned to Argentina on personal business more than a month ago and was hospitalized on April 18, complaining of chest pains and fever.

He spent much of last week listed in critical condition, breathing with the help of a respirator and under heavy sedation.

Maradona's family has said drugs had nothing to do with the hospitalization.

His departure from the clinic came after a string of upbeat medical reports - but just one day after his medical team said he would remain in intensive care for at least a few extra days "to help speed up his recovery."

It was his second emergency hospitalization in recent years.

In January 2000, he was hospitalized in Uruguay and diagnosed with a severe heart condition and later sought medical help in Cuba.