JIMMY JOHNSTONE'S best pal Ian Henderson has paid tribute to their friend Billy McNeill as the Celtic icon’s family revealed he is battling dementia.

The 65-year-old – who has known Billy for two decades after meeting through his Lisbon Lions teammate – also recalled the esteem in which Jinky held his former captain.

4 Jimmy Johnstone once told a doctor he wanted to wait for his captain Billy McNeill Credit: Scottish News and Sport

4 Billy McNeill alongside long-term friend Ian Henderson

We revealed today how Billy, 76, had been robbed of his speech by the degenerative brain illness.

He is now being cared for at his home in Newton Mearns, Glasgow, by devoted wife Liz, 73.

Ian, from Airdrie, said: “Billy was a great player and is undoubtedly one of our most iconic football players.

“More importantly though, you will not meet a nicer guy. He is the ultimate gentleman.

4 McNeill stands beside his statue on the Celtic Way Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

“And he epitomises that era of footballer and what those guys are all about – he, like so many of them, always has time for people.

“To see him going through what he’s going through just now is so sad. I wish him and his family all the best.

“I’ve known Billy for 20 years and he is great company. He was at my wedding.

“We had so many laughs going to after-dinner dos too with Jimmy, Bertie Auld and the other Lisbon Lions.”

He met Billy’s Lisbon Lions teammate Jinky in the Sixties when the winger insisted on singing with his band in pubs and clubs.

4 Celtic hero Jimmy Johnstone Credit: Alamy

And it was a friendship that remained until the Hoops idol lost a four-year fight with Motor Neurone Disease in March 2006, aged 61.

Ian was by his side throughout his illness, as was Billy.

He told how Jinky once refused to start an appointment with a top MND specialist until his 1967 European Cup winning skipper was in the room.

Ian said: “The man in question was the eminent doctor when it came to Motor Neurone Disease.

“Billy was on his way. But the doctor started asking questions, and wanted to examine Jimmy.

“The wee man said, ‘I’m not doing anything until my captain’s here’.

“That was the regard in which Jimmy – over 30 years after they played together – held Billy.”

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