Robbie Williams was forced to cancel the rest of his European tour after slipping a disc.
The 43-year-old singer was due to perform two dates in Russia as part of his ‘The Heavy Entertainment Show Tour’, and play a New Wave event in Sochi earlier this month, but has now revealed the "mystery illness" behind calling off the shows was in fact his bad back, which he has long suffered with.
The ‘I Love My Life’ hitmaker – who regularly opens up about his crippling battle with anxiety and mental illness – says it’s important for him to be both "mentally and psychically fit" to do such big shows, and so he felt it was best to get himself back to full health before returning to the stage in February next year.
Robbie told the Daily Star newspaper: "The most difficult thing about creating the tour was my health and my back, I’ve got a slipped disc and it was kind of stressful.
"You have to be physically fit and mentally fit.
"I have to be as mentally fit as I can be to take on such a massive undertaking; there’s one million plus people that are coming to see me and you can’t do that with a bad back, but I have."
The dark-haired hunk is due to resume his tour in Australia in 2018.
A spokesperson for the star said previously: "Robbie Williams has played to over 1.1 million fans this summer and recently announced an Australian leg of the tour which is happening in February and March 2018."
The tour cancellation came after the ‘Rock DJ’ singer admitted that being a pop star is "bad" for his health, and that he thinks he wouldn’t suffer from depression if he wasn’t famous.
He said recently: "This job is really bad for my health. It’s going to kill me. Unless I view it in a different way.
"[Depression] sprints through my family. I don’t know if I’d be this mentally ill without fame.
"I don’t think it would be as gross or as powerful if it hadn’t have been for fame.
"You get a magnifying glass in the shape of the world’s attention and your defects will obviously magnify too."
Robbie Williams was touring with slipped disc
