GEORGE Best is a man who must have grown accustomed to being given last chances.

A number of football managers have lived to regret giving him a last chance to resurrect a great career before finally drawing the same conclusion that there was simply no point.

George Best, one of the most gifted footballers to ever lace up a pair of boots, threw it all away.

It was left to doctors to give him a last chance to live by going ahead with a liver transplant when he was just weeks from death.

To throw away that final chance - by starting to drink alcohol again - would be an insult not just to the medical team who saved him, but to the family of the donor.

George Best has a moral duty to ensure that the latest "lapse" in his local is not repeated.

Inevitably, this alarming chapter in the George Best story has restarted the debate over whether he was worthy of a transplant in the first place. Radio phone-ins yesterday were still full of the arguments for and against, though mainly against.

George Best may be an infuriating fool, but he is not a bad man. He was worthy of a liver transplant because he is a human being - no matter how he has lived his life.

Alcoholism is an illness and, like anyone else suffering from an illness, Best - having waited his turn in the queue - deserved the chance he was given.

If Best is weak, he is incredibly lucky to have the strength of his wife Alex.

Those who believe he didn't deserve his liver transplant probably believe he doesn't deserve her either.

But throughout it all, she has been at his side and he owes his life as much to her as anyone.

Just like the doctors, the donor, and the donor's family, she has given George Best a final chance - we hope that he doesn't let them all down.