BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP)— The long-awaited criminal trial of eight medical professionals accused of negligence in the death of Argentina football legend Diego Maradona, due to start next week, was postponed Wednesday to October.

Maradona died in November 2020 aged 60 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot, and after decades of battles with cocaine and alcohol addictions.

He was found dead in bed two weeks after going under the knife, in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighbourhood where he was brought after being discharged from hospital.

He was found to have died of a heart attack.

Last April, an Argentine appeals court confirmed that neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and six others, including nurses, would stand trial in the matter, rejecting an appeal.

On Wednesday, a court suspended the trial which was to have started next Tuesday to October 1, saying there were “a series of issues… that need to be resolved before the start of the hearings.”

In the same ruling it denied, for the moment, the transfer of Maradona’s remains from a private cemetery at the request of his daughters and girlfriend, who want to move them to a mausoleum.

Prosecutors have accused the eight medical professionals of providing “reckless” and “deficient” home treatment to Maradona.

A panel of 20 medical experts convened by Argentina’s public prosecutor concluded in 2021 that Maradona “would have had a better chance of survival” with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.