Diego Maradona was still stuck in Argentina yesterday, frustrated by his family's refusal to allow him to continue his cocaine addiction treatment in Cuba.

A judge ruled this week that the 43-year-old former Argentina captain could leave a psychiatric clinic outside Buenos Aires, where his family has confined him since heart problems landed him in intensive care in April.

But Maradona's family has until next Tuesday to appeal the court decision, and some relatives have declined to sign forms allowing him to leave the country before then.

"It's very frustrating for him. I think it could even make him have a breakdown," Nestor Mar-chant, one of Maradona's psychiatrists, said.

"So much sacrifice to get his spirits up for him to travel, for him to recover. And now these problems just fell out of the sky. This man should have been in Cuba by now," Marchant said.

A virtual army of news cameras has been camped outside the clinic, and television stations regularly break into live programming with the latest speculation on when Maradona might depart.

Maradona has made Cuba his second home in recent years, saying the island offers a respite from the media and fan frenzy in Europe and South America.

Maradona says he has been fighting drug addiction for much of the last 20 years.