Former Manchester United and Northern Ireland legend George Best is to undergo a liver transplant today in London's Cromwell Hospital. The 56-year-old from Belfast went into theatre this morning in an operation that is expected to take up to 16 hours. Best had been waiting for a donor and having just returned from holiday in Malta, his agent Phil Hughes today confirmed the call for the operation to go ahead came today.
Best has publicly fought a long battle against alcoholism, which has left his liver permanently damaged. He has often appeared gaunt in front of the Sky television cameras, where he works as a pundit on Saturday afternoons, and surgeons decided a transplant was the only suitable course of action.
Best has been on the waiting list for several months and, despite booking a recent holiday to Malta, was forced to stay in a hotel within an hour of the airport so he could return to London within six hours. Speaking in his column in the Mail on Sunday over the weekend, the former Northern Ireland international wrote: "We have been a bit naughty, because I should be stuck at home waiting for a call telling me the transplant is on and to high tail it to the hospital. But I have been waiting for almost eight months now and have cancelled holiday after holiday."
Best was warned two years ago that he would die unless he quit drinking and has been undergoing an intense course of treatment since. Two months ago he was admitted to hospital in Limassol, Cyprus suffering from a fever and a gastrointestinal tract infection. The exact cause of the infection was not thought to be directly related to alcohol, but Dr Andreas Stylianides said at the time he was more prone to falling ill because of his history.
Filed by Shane Murray
