THE football world took a collective gulp last night in anticipation of the news it has dreaded for so long. George Best, arguably the most talented player in British football history, was still fighting for his life in a West London hospital, but updates on his condition were sounding increasingly bleak.

The legendary former Manchester United player, who has been in intensive care since October 2, was described as “seriously ill” as he continued to suffer from internal bleeding related to a bowel infection.

“I can’t give you an idea on chances,” Professor Roger Williams, his consultant, told reporters outside Cromwell Hospital. “I always hope for the best and we are not giving up on him. Quite what will happen over the next 24 hours, I really wouldn’t want to say.”

Best was visited yesterday afternoon by his father, Dickie, and sisters Barbara, Carol and Julie, as well as his son, Calum, who left the hospital with the sombre message that the 59-year-old’s condition was “touch and go”. Almost as much as his immediate family, though, the wider football community was preparing to bid a sad farewell.

Best’s immense talent was tragically unfulfilled as his career nosedived after a premature departure from United at the age of 27. But, despite sadness and even condemnation at his descent into alcoholism, he remains one of the most loved of all British footballers and one whose passing would be grieved throughout the game.

The mercurial winger claimed the European Footballer of the Year award after inspiring Matt Busby’s United team to become the first English club to win the European Cup, in 1968, but within five years he had walked out of Old Trafford.

His subsequent career, taking in Fulham, Stockport County, Hibernian and Bournemouth as well as three clubs in the North American Soccer League, was notable only for a lack of stability as his playboy lifestyle saw him lurch into alcoholism and suffer two failed marriages.

The football world was ready to forgive and forget last night as it prepared to say a tearful goodbye to one of its favourite, if most wayward, sons.