Eusebio operation has gone to plan

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LISBON, Portugal -- Portugal's most celebrated former player Eusebio underwent surgery on his cartoid arteries early on Monday, a hospital spokesman said.

The aim of the surgery was to unblock the arteries that carry blood to the brain and diminish the risk of the 65-year-old having a stroke.

The spokesman said the operation had gone to plan and that Eusebio could be released in three to four days.

"Eusebio did not register any neurological problems and has been seen by his family," Eusebio's surgeon Germano do Carmo told a news conference.

The surgery took place at Benfica's newly opened hospital, about 500 metres from the Stadium of Light where the Mozambique-born "Black Panther" thrilled crowds in the 1960s and 1970s.

Eusebio scored some 1,000 goals during his professional career from 1960 to 1975 as a striker with Benfica and the Portuguese national side.

He twice won Europe's Golden Boot award as the top European scorer in 1968 and 1973 and was European Footballer of the Year in 1965.

The following year he was top scorer at the World Cup finals in England with nine goals, including four in the 5-3 victory over North Korea.

Eusebio appeared in five European Cup finals with Benfica and scored twice in the 5-2 defeat of Real Madrid in 1962.

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