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As Muhammad Ali celebrated his 65th birthday fears for his life are growing. The health of the world's greatest sporting icon has deteriorated so rapidly that one of his closest friends said this week: "Although he will now qualify for Medicare, he doesn't need it - what he needs is our prayers."
Gene Kilroy, also 65, who has known Ali for more than 40 years, added: "When I see him now I want to cry. He looks like he is wasting away and is getting frailer by the day."
Ali, who is deep in the grip of Parkinson's disease, cannot walk unassisted, can barely speak and shows little or no recognition of those around him.
His last public appearance was at a football match at the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year's Day.
"He looked terrible," says Kilroy. "It makes me angry that they are still taking him all over the place when he should be at home resting."
Ali was also briefly at the ringside in Madison Square Garden, New York, last month to watch his daughter, Laila, one of his nine children and herself a world champion - apparently much to Ali's chagrin as he doesn't approve of women's boxing.
He was driven to his front-row seat in a golf cart and observers say it was a pitiful sight as he sat blinking and twitching involuntarily as fans crowded around.
The famous Ali shuffle has long ceased to be a dazzling quickstep and is a painfully slow wobble. Yet Ali remains the most recognisable human being on Earth, and still the best-loved, most charismatic sports figure. The one and only true Lord of the Rings.
The last time Ali had a global audience was as a member of the New York contingent which bid unsuccessfully in Singapore for the 2012 Olympics. They took him along because of the impact he made on 3 billion viewers when he lit the flame with a trembling hand in Atlanta in 1996. But it was a dreadful mistake. Ali was mute and zombie-like, his movements robotic, his gaze blank. Many were in tears as he tried to rise to acknowledge the huge ovation, but fell off his chair.
It has been the love of one good woman that has helped keep him alive. His 48-year-old fourth wife, Lonnie, has devoted her life to nursing him since they were married in 1986.
A tall, striking woman, she accompanies him everywhere. Wherever he goes, Ali commands a fee of US$100,000 ($144,000), and Lonnie controls the purse strings.
But Lonnie insists money is not the reason he is kept in the spotlight.
"This is not just his living, it is also his life," she says. "He simply couldn't bear to fade away."
- INDEPENDENT
