SAO PAULO (AP) Brazilian media say Pele has undergone successful back surgery and should be discharged from a Sao Paulo hospital next week.
The operation was on Thursday, the UOL and G1 news portals said on Saturday.
Calls to Pele's personal assistant, Jose Fornos, for details went unanswered.
Mirtes Bogea, a press officer for the Albert Einstein Hospital, said on Saturday she could only confirm he was there.
She said she was not allowed to say when he was hospitalized or why.
The 74-year-old Pele underwent prostate surgery at the same hospital in May. The procedure was to treat urinary problems because of an enlarged prostate, doctors said at the time. Tests conducted after that surgery showed there were no tumors.
He was also hospitalized in December for two weeks because of a urinary tract infection that stemmed from surgery to remove kidney stones.
Pele is widely regarded as the greatest soccer player of all time.
