Brazil football legend Pele's health is improving but he is still receiving an intensive treatment known as hemodialysis for a urinary infection, the hospital treating him said Friday.

Pele, 74, "is in better clinical condition," said the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, adding that he was "lucid" and breathing on his own but still receiving hemodialysis, which involves filtering a patient's blood through a machine that cleans it and returns it to the body.