Pele shows up in netflix documentary with walking frame

 

Brazil legend Pele cuts a frail figure in the new Netflix documentary focusing on his extraordinary career.

Released on Tuesday, the film Pele, codirected by David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas, involves a series of interviews with the former forward and those close to him.

While the film goes into detail never previously discussed by the 80-year-old in front of camera before, it is his physical condition that is perhaps the most telling story of all.

Entering the screen for the first time, Pele is only able to make his way to the chair in the centre of a room with the aid of a walking frame.

Once he gets to the seat, he chucks the frame to one side before starting the interview.

His mobility issues are accentuated later on, when he turns up to a BBQ in a wheelchair.

Pele has undergone hip surgery previously, but as his son Edinho since admitted, his recovery has not gone to plan.

‘He’s pretty fragile. He had a hip replacement and didn’t have an adequate or ideal rehabilitation,’ Edinho told Brazilian TV channel Globo last year.

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‘So he has this problem with mobility and that has set off a kind of depression. Imagine, he’s the king, he was always such an imposing figure, and today he can’t walk properly.

‘He’s embarrassed, he doesn’t want to go out, be seen, or do practically anything that involves leaving the house. He is reclusive.’

Pele came out to deny those claims, and the new documentary certainly seems to go against those claims.