“Leo is a friend of mine and I’d never speak ill of a friend,” Maradona assured Spanish sports newspaper Marca on Wednesday.

Last month Maradona was quoted as telling Fox Sports in Mexico that Messi “is not a leader… It’s useless to try and make a leader out of someone who goes to the bathroom 20 times before a game”.

He told Marca that “all that was false”.

“All I said was that Leo is a phenomenon. And that there were players who go to the toilet 20 times, but I never made any reference to Leo,” he insisted.

Maradona implored his fellow countryman to return to the national side after sitting out three friendlies since Argentina’s group-stage elimination from this summer’s World Cup in Russia.

“I think he should return.”

Maradona, who led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup, is currently in Mexico coaching Ascenso MX club Dorados de Sinaloa.