The medic who performed surgery on Pope Francis says the 86-year-old is recovering and ‘doesn’t have other illnesses’.

“The Holy Father is well, this is the news that you and the whole world were waiting for,” Sergio Alfieri, the doctor who performed the operation at the Gemelli Hospital in the Italian capital, told reporters late on Wednesday.

“He has already made his first joke 10 minutes ago,” he said, adding that there were no complications in the surgery.

Francis was admitted to hospital on Wednesday for a three-hour operation.

The pope is now expected to rest for five to seven days, he added.

The 86-year-old is staying on the 10th floor of the Gemelli, a suite reserved for popes.

Born in Argentina, Francis started his papacy in 2013 after then-pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by resigning.

He is the first pope to hail from the so-called Global South, a term comprising Latin America, Africa and much of Asia, which is today home to most of the world’s Christians.

The pope was treated for bronchitis more than two months ago and stayed at the Gemelli for three days.

In 2011, he had major colon surgery. Francis also has knee problems and is regularly seen walking with the help of a cane.

But Alfieri, the doctor who performed the latest surgery, said that, overall, the pope is in good health.

“Let’s be clear once and for all … The pope doesn’t have other illnesses,” he said, adding that the operation more than 10 years ago and Wednesday’s procedure were caused by “benign pathologies”.