Brazilian football great Pelé’s cancer has worsened ©Getty Images

Brazilian football great Pelé’s cancer has worsened, according to a statement from a hospital in São Paulo where he is receiving treatment.

The former Santos Football Club star was admitted to the hospital last month with "generalised swelling and decompensated heart failure".

The Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital in São Paulo has now said that Pelé "presents progression of the oncological disease and requires greater care related to renal (kidney) and cardiac dysfunctions."

This means that the football icon will be spending Christmas away from home.  

His daughter Kely Nascimento confirmed the same via Instagram.

Pelé has won three World Cups with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970 ©Getty Images
Pelé has won three World Cups with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970 ©Getty Images

"Our Christmas at home has been suspended," Nascimento wrote.

"We decided with the doctors that, for various reasons, it would be better for us to stay here, with all the care that this new family … Einstein gives us!!"

The former Santos and New York Cosmos player had a tumour removed from his colon in September 2021 and has been undergoing regular treatment since.

Pelé has won three World Cups with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

He has scored 643 goals in 659 official games for Santos and found the net 77 times in 92 games for Brazil.