Brazil's Bolsonaro to spend four more days recovering after surgery

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently underwent surgery to treat complications from a stab wound, will spend four more days recovering on the advice of his medical team, the president's spokesman said on Thursday.

Bolsonaro's recovery is "evolving positively," Otávio Rêgo Barros said in the statement. "However, the medical team ... decided to keep him out of office as head of the executive for another four days from 13 September 2019, in order to provide a longer period of rest."

Earlier on Thursday, Rêgo Barros had said the president would hopefully be back at work on Friday.

A medical bulletin released by the hospital on Thursday said Bolsonaro was being fed intravenously, but was in no pain and his recovery was progressing "favourably."

Bolsonaro has been in a Sao Paulo hospital since Sunday, when he underwent a five-hour hernia operation necessitated by the weakening of abdominal tissues from three previous surgeries after he was stabbed last year during the election campaign.

Bolsonaro is still planning to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month, Barros has said.

(Reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Writing by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Bernadette Baum and Richard Chang)