Best’s lapse ‘temporary’ says doctor

SOCCER legend George Best stayed away from the pub yesterday after a week-long binge that family said could have killed him.

Best, who looked tired, relaxed with his wife Alex, on the lawn of their cottage in Surrey. The 57-year-old sparked a media frenzy over the weekend after he was spotted drinking in a local pub.

Yesterday, the doctor who supervised his liver transplant said he felt Best was still a worthwhile candidate for the operation.

Professor Roger Williams was speaking after the former footballer’s wife Alex was said to be “absolutely furious” with a hotel which served him alcohol.

Last year, Best pledged he had abandoned drink forever after undergoing a liver transplant when he was said to have only weeks left to live.

Professor Williams said he thought Best’s recent behaviour could be a temporary lapse from which he should be able to recover ground.

“He did not drink at all for a year before the transplant and when I first saw him, he stopped drinking although there were occasional lapses, and that is what people are like when they have this condition.

“But the results of transplantation for liver disease due to alcohol are on the whole as good as in any other category of cirrhosis, so he certainly needed it, and it is certainly worthwhile and it is an accepted indication.”

Best’s agent and friend Phil Hughes said yesterday Alex was not angry with her husband, but was “very, very upset” he had begun drinking again.

His comments came as the former Manchester United and Northern Ireland star returned to the village pub where he was arrested on Saturday after an alleged punch-up with a news photographer.

Best, who had his life-saving liver transplant a year ago, has been drinking again for about a week and he appeared to have a new group of friends who had “not been helping him”, Mr Hughes said.

The situation reached a head on Saturday when Best and the photographer were arrested on suspicion of assault. Both were later released without charge and no further action is expected.

Mr Hughes, a close friend of the couple, said Alex was angry with the Chequers for serving her husband.

“She is absolutely furious,” he said. “She has not had words because it would not help the situation. You cannot go down there screaming and shouting, it is only going to embarrass him (George).”

He insisted Best was “very remorseful” and had acknowledged that he needed help with his latest battle with alcohol.

“We need him to get help, but it is only George who can help himself,” he said. “He is not a stupid person. This has happened for whatever reason, we do not know. We need him to settle down and face facts.”

He said it was a mystery why Best had started drinking again and denied there was anything wrong which could have prompted his return to alcohol.

He said of 30-year-old Alex: “She feels very sorry for George because it is just a horrible condition, he has been fighting it for three years now.”

Alex emerged from their picturesque brick and flint cottage in

Upper Gatton only briefly yesterday, wearing a white vest top and mini skirt, but she declined to speak to waiting reporters.

The landlord of the Chequers, Mark Noble Campbell, described her comments as “a bit out of order”.