Buenos Aires  - Argentina was still pondering in shock - and doubt - whether its football team would make it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when coach Diego Maradona took off by surprise for a spa in Italy.

"It's all confusion," the daily Clarin said Tuesday.

National football legend Maradona, 48, may have been planning the trip for weeks, but many at the Argentine Football Association (AFA) felt that the timing could hardly have been worse.

"Maradona distanced himself from the pressure of the defeats in the qualifiers," the daily La Nacion interpreted.

Carlos Bilardo - who led Argentina to the 1986 title and is currently assistant to Maradona - was designated to stand in until the coach's expected return next week.

"It is an interim mandate to keep doing things. This is a logistical situation, not one related to football. It's about not putting everything on hold," AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo told dpa.

But most were not convinced. Clarin wondered in a headline "Who's boss in the national team?" - no small matter, given the arduous task at hand.

Argentina currently stand fifth in the South American World Cup qualifiers, and if qualifying were to finish right now they would have to face a team from the North-,Central America and Caribbean zone in a play-off for a World Cup place.

Even worse, however, players who have long proved their quality on the pitch, commanded by talented striker Lionel Messi, have put on a string of very poor performances in Argentina's blue-and-white shirt. The likes of Javier Mascherano, Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero look like shadows of themselves in the national team jersey.

And there are still two games to go - two finals, as Argentine media stress - against Peru and Uruguay in mid-October.

The football-crazy South American country was still trying to digest this much, fresh from two painful defeats against Brazil and Paraguay earlier this month.

And Maradona took off to engage in weight-loss spa treatment for 10-12 days, according to his personal doctor Alfredo Cahe, who did not even rule out a longer stay.

Many of course wondered whether the great tensions of recent weeks might have led Maradona to relapse into his years-long addiction to cocaine and other drugs. But Cahe insisted that he is only overweight.

"Emotionally he is very stable, but worried," the doctor noted.

Bilardo is reportedly concerned that Maradona may take his designation to replace him temporarily as a form of treason, but AFA President Julio Grondona is said to have reassured him that this would have no effect on Maradona's powers once he is back.

Until then, however, there is plenty of work to do.

"I am very worried. What is coming next are decisive games for qualification," Bilardo said.

Neither Grondona not Maradona have talked to the media about what is going on, although Grondona is reportedly furious at the coach's untimely spa attendance in the northern Italian town of Merano.

Be that as it may, Maradona is now in Italy, Bilardo is filling the gap, and the crucial qualifiers are only a month away. The key is, of course, to make things work when Maradona returns, and that remains an uncertain challenge.

"What is happening to Diego is normal, because in any profession there is no human being who can prove they are perfect from one day to the next," former player and coach and current analyst Roberto Perfumo said of Maradona's scarce experience as coach.

"Didn't people know that in advance? Yes, and they hired him anyway."

As things stand, Argentina will have to wait for their coach. And once he is back, they will have to beat Peru and Uruguay to get a place in South Africa.

"We need Maradona to be healthy, wholesome and strong," Cherquis Bialo said.  dpa