One of Pele’s daughters has said she and her family are enduring moments of sadness and despair as the 82-year-old Brazilian soccer legend’s hospital stay nears one month.

The three-time World Cup winner’s cancer has advanced and doctors at Albert Einstein hospital, in Sao Paulo, recently said he was under “elevated care” related to “kidney and cardiac dysfunctions.”

Pele was admitted on November 29. The hospital has not published any updates in the past week.

“These moments are hard to explain. Sometimes it is a lot of sadness and despair, in other moments we laugh and speak about fun memories,” Kely Nascimento said on Instagram on Wednesday.

Other family members are also at the hospital.

“And what we learn the most from all of this is that we have to seek one another, hold each other tight. That’s the only way this is worth it. Everyone together,” she wrote.

One of Pele’s sons, Edson Cholbi Nascimento, known as Edinho, visited on Saturday but returned on Tuesday to a southern Brazil city where he works as a soccer coach.

He has not spoken to journalists since he left Sao Paulo.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known globally as Pele, had a colon tumour removed in September 2021. Neither his family nor the hospital has specified whether it had spread to other organs.

Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported last weekend that Pele’s chemotherapy was not working and that doctors had decided to put him on palliative care. His family denied that report.

Pele helped Brazil to victory in the 1958, 1962 and 1970 World Cups and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals. Neymar equalled his record during the World Cup in Qatar.

Several tributes and get-well soon wishes were made for the former footballer during the tournament.