Diego Maradona was striding towards recovery on Wednesday as he walked around his intensive care hospital room, but the Argentine soccer great's doctors gave no hint of when he would be sent home.

The 43-year-old has been in hospital for 11 days after being taken ill with heart and lung problems. His fans have kept a constant vigil outside, some chanting and others praying aloud for his recovery.

"He has been able to walk inside his room," the Suizo-Argentina clinic said in a statement on Wednesday. "(He) continues to be stable with progressive improvement in the state of his heart and lungs.

"He is without fever, the only medication still administered intravenously are antibiotics and the rest of the medication is taken orally. He continues to eat normally."

Maradona's health is a vast improvement from a few days ago, when he was in a critical condition, heavily sedated and on an artificial respirator.

The former World Cup winner's family doctor Alfredo Cahe raised his thumb in the air as he left the clinic on Wednesday, saying: "He's okay."

Maradona's official website said he had even joked with his doctors on Tuesday night about letting him watch the Argentine national side play Morocco in a friendly international on Wednesday afternoon.

Argentine Football Association head Julio Grondona, meanwhile, has offered Maradona a role as ambassador for the sport once he has recovered.

"For a man like him, of his popularity, his charisma with people and his place in world football, there is no limit to what he can do," Grondona told daily newspaper Clarin.

Maradona, one of the most gifted players in the game's history, was rushed to hospital on April 18 with a swollen heart and breathing difficulties after watching his former club Boca Juniors, where he owns a VIP box.

Doctors later said he also had pneumonia.

Maradona, who has been undergoing a drugs rehabilitation programme in Cuba since 2000, returned to Argentina in March. He has put on so much weight he is barely recognisable from his playing days.