Buenos Aires, Mar 31 (DPA): Argentina coach Diego Maradona needed reconstructive surgery in his upper lip Tuesday after being bitten in the face by one of his dogs, a medical statement said.

The football legend, 49, bled profusely from the bite was admitted into hospital in the early hours of Tuesday, but surgery appeared to have solved the problem and he was released from the Los Arcos hospital in Buenos Aires later Tuesday.

Maradona's spokesman Fernando Molina told reporters that the coach "is very well" and that the accident was not expected "to alter the rhythm of work" for Argentina's national team ahead of the World Cup, that is set to be held in South Africa from June 11.

Maradona already spent time at that hospital in April 2007, to treat an acute toxic hepatitis derived from his excessive alcohol

intake.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Maradona was playing with a Shar Pei at his home in the Buenos Aires suburb of Ezeiza. The dog attacked him and caused him several injuries in the face. Ten stitches of microsurgery was needed to fix the coach's lip, and

Maradona was also given vaccines against tetanus and rabies.

Dogs of the Chinese Shar Pei breed are characteristically muscular and powerful, but also calm.