George best discharged, flying home today

By Jennie Matthew

GEORGE BEST is flying home today after a week in Cyprus, half of which was spent in a clinic receiving treatment for fever and a stomach virus.

The soccer legend, dogged by alcoholism for 30 years, came down with a fever last Thursday, just two days after checking into the Amathus Beach Hotel in Limassol with his wife and manager.

He was urgently admitted to a private clinic in the coastal town, on the advice of his London consultant Professor Roger Williams.

Best was finally discharged yesterday, shortly before noon, despite hopes that he would be fit to return to his hotel at the weekend.

” He had a temperature which kept him in one more day,”said his doctor Andreas Stylianides, recommended by Professor Williams.

Both Stylianides and Best’s manager Phil Hughes stressed that the footballer’s illness had nothing to do with alcohol abuse.

” George is suffering from a stomach complaint and that’s all it is. It’s nothing to do with his liver or alcohol. The doctors say it’s a bug which could have been picked up from the air conditioning or from the aeroplane, “Hughes said on Friday.

Stylianides confirmed that his patient’s infection of the gastro-intestinal tract had ” nothing to do with recent alcohol abuse” .

” He responded very well to treatment,”Stylianides added.

Nevertheless, any infection is considered dangerous for Best because his liver has been so damaged by decades of heavy drinking.

The star is expected to consult his London doctor on his return to the UK.

His four-days in the clinic were surrounded by media hype and speculation.

Health Minister Frixos Savvides visited him on Friday evening.

Best, 55, and wife Alex, 29, were in Cyprus to promote the Lanitis-owned Aphrodite Hills golf course in Paphos.

His illness did not prevent him from carrying out his commission and he is expected to be return to Cyprus next year, again on Lanitis’ behalf.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.