Rebelo de Sousa “was this afternoon interned in Hospital Curry Cabral [in Lisbon] to be operated on for an umbilical hernia” that had become strangulated, a statement posted on his official website said.

“This operation had long been foreseen for early January, but doctors overseeing the patient decided to bring it forward, because [the hernia] had become incarcerated”, the statement said, using another phrase for a strangulated hernia, which is a medical emergency.

According to the statement, the president “has cancelled all today’s agenda, as well as that of the next few days, including trips foreseen for 31 December and 1 January” to parts of Portugal affected by October’s deadly forest fires.