Best can recover after binge - doctor

Soccer legend George Best was a “worthwhile” candidate for a new liver, the doctor who supervised his transplant said today.

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 during a weekend drinking session.

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

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

He added that he thought Best must be “very disappointed” with himself as he had been doing so well.

He told GMTV: “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 that Alex was not angry with her husband, but was “very, very upset” that 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.

But this time the 57-year-old was only sipping mineral water at the Chequers Hotel in Walton on the Hill, Tadworth, Surrey, where he arrived at around midday.

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). It is a very difficult situation.”

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.”

Mr Hughes said Alex and George had spoken since reports of his drinking had emerged and she had vowed to stand by him.

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”.

And Michael Hardman, a spokesman for Young’s Brewery which owns the Chequers, said Best had been visiting the pub regularly for “some months” and had often enjoyed a couple of glasses of white wine with a meal.

“George had told me himself this evening that he feels quite comfortable with white wines,” Mr Hardman said.

“He says that the pills that he is on do not allow him to have any more because he falls asleep after that.

“He has been perfectly well behaved, very amiable. He is an affable chap, he creates a lot of interest in the pub. People ask him for his autograph and ask him to reminisce about olden times.”

He added: “He is much better in here, he is much more comfortable, a happier man in here than he would be in a supermarket and going home and sitting in misery drinking alcohol.”

Earlier in the day Best declined to be interviewed but seemed relaxed as he chatted to a small group of children and friends, even pausing to sign autographs.

He left the pub in a silver Mercedes shortly before 7.30pm, more than seven hours after he was said to have arrived. He returned at 8.30pm but left a few minutes later.

Linda Broomfield, 45, a regular at the pub and a resident of the village, said Best had left two white wine spritzers undrunk on the table and stuck to water throughout the day.

She said: “You can tell when someone is a bit drunk and he was just very coherent, no way was he drunk in any way.”