A first analysis of a urine sample provided by Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona, currently hospitalised after suffering from hypertension and an irregular heartbeat, has revealed traces of cocaine, the Uruguyan police have said.

Maldonado district police chief Maximo Costa Rocha told a press conference that the drug had been detected in the first sample. "This positive sample is due to an excessive consumption of cocaine," he said.

Costa Rocha made it clear Maradona had not been arrested but said several other people were helping police with their inquiries.

Judge Adriana de los Santos is presiding over the affair and Costa Rocha said: "Numerous other matters are going to be looked into."

The player's agent, Guillermo Coppola, was questioned for five hours by the police, and another businessman and friend of Maradona, Pablo Cosentino, was quizzed for three hours.

Maradona, widely regarded as the second greatest footballer in history behind Brazil's Pele, was hospitalised on Tuesday but - given the player's chequered history - there had been much speculation that his illness was drug related.

Maradona became a national hero when he inspired Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup, winning the quarter-final with England and semi-final with Belgium virtually singlehandedly.

But he has always been a controversial figure and his problems with drugs have been much documented. In 1991 he tested positive for cocaine after the Serie A match in Italy between his team Napoli and Bari.

He was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the United States after failing a drug test - this time for ephedrine - during the tournament. He was later banned for 15 months.

In 1997 he failed another drug test after a match between Boca Juniors and Argentinos Juniors. That affair is yet to be dealt with.

The mother of Argentina's 39-year-old Sportsman of the Century, meanwhile, has made a public appeal to the press not to hound her son who, she claimed, suffers from hypertension like his father.

In Uruguay the use of drugs is a misdemeanour but not a felony and a judge can only prescribe a course of treatment and order an investigation.