Brazil's Bolsonaro hopes to return to work on Friday after surgery: spokesman

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, currently in hospital recovering from a hernia operation, hopes to resume presidential duties on Friday, his spokesman Otavio Rego Barros said on Thursday.

That would be a day later than expected, and if the president needs more time to recover, Vice President Hamilton Mourao will remain in temporary charge, Barros said.

A medical bulletin released by the hospital on Thursday said he was being fed intravenously, but was in no pain and his recovery was progressing “favorably.”

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 said.