Bleary-eyed and unshaven, George Best finally re-emerged from his lost weekend today and returned to his forgiving wife.

It had been more than 13 hours since Alex Best had last heard from the wayward former soccer star. After his five-day drinking binge, only a year after his life-saving liver transplant, he could have been lying dead in a field for all she knew.

Earlier, the disappointment and strain of spending all night crying and ringing her husband's mobile, caused Alex to declare: "I've had enough."

But as soon as he appeared at his Surrey home this morning, she told reporters and cameramen who had camped there overnight: "He is home, he is fine. That's the main thing."

Ever the showman, an apparently unrepentant Best did not disappoint. Moments after sneaking past the media pack by being dropped off by a friend on a private road, he positively relished the limelight.

First, he appeared with Alex in the garden to water the plants. He then stripped off his shirt to sunbathe and, as has become his party piece since his operation, flashed his scar.

Joking with reporters, Best put on a Bob Dylan track, Positively 4th Street. The opening line drifted across the garden fence: "You got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend. When I was down you just stood there grinning."

Best, whose drinking binge ended in his arrest over a scuffle with a photographer on Saturday. told reporters: "This one is especially for you."

His relaxed attitude, clearly, had much to do with Alex, who had her arm round his shoulder. Smiles, smiles and more smiles. Not a rolling pin in sight.

Best's agent, Phil Turner, said: "He knew reporters were waiting for him at the back and decided he was going to use an entrance at the front of the house. He wanted to talk to Alex first before facing the pack."

Whatever excuse he came up with, it obviously worked. The transformation in Alex was remarkable. A close friend revealed earlier today: "She is really upset and has been crying. She thinks this is the thin end of the wedge and that George has fallen off the wagon."

Mr Turner said the former footballer had probably stayed the night at the nearby Chequers Pub in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey. He added: "Everyone who knows him is furious that he has started drinking again and will potentially ruin everything he's built up. He is definitely in with a bad bunch who are not helping the situation. The last thing he needs is people encouraging him to drink."

The man who operated on Best, Professor Roger Williams, said he was "disappointed" at his patient's lapse. But he added: "I have every confidence in him."

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