Phil Collins opened up about his health struggles in a world-exclusive interview with Zoe Ball for Eras - In Conversation for BBC Two to celebrate his 75th birthday. The Genesis performer suffers from type 2 Diabetes and complications from a spine injury which manifested itself in 2007. In a new update, the Easy Lover hitmaker revealed he spent months in hospital following several health ailments.

While, he admits there is "life in the old dog yet", he has been hit with health issues in recent years including issues with his kidneys and now requires a live-in nurse for around the clock care.

"Yeah, it's an ongoing thing. You know I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should do," Phil explained.

He continued: "I've had challenges with my knee, I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me. I got COVID in hospital - my kidneys started to back up, you know, everything that started that could, all seemed to converge at the same time.

"I had five operations on my knee now - I've got a knee that works and I can walk, albeit with assistance, you know, crutches or whatever.

"I'd probably been drinking too much, and so my kidneys were messed up, you know. I enjoyed coming off tour, coming off the road, but I thought, right, I'm gonna do all those things that I couldn't do."

Phil added: "I wasn't one of those guys that sort of stayed up all night drinking, I'd drink during the day, but I guess I had too much of it. I was never drunk, although I fell over a couple of times.

But, it is just one of those things that happened and it all caught up with me and I spent months in hospital."

The BBC will mark the legendary musician's milestone 75th birthday with the release of the TV special Phil Collins Eras: In Conversation, to air later this month.

The programme is the final and fifth instalment of Eras: Phil Collins podcast series, which will debut on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer at 6am on Monday 26th January and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday 1st February (00:00-12:30am). Episodes one - four are already available on BBC Sounds.

Phil Collins Eras: In Conversation airs on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on January 31