Sam Smith has revealed he is set to undergo surgery on his vocal cords to save his voice.
The 22-year-old performer made the announcement on Twitter today after he was forced to pull out of gigs in Australia, Japan and Manila.
Doctors have advised him not to speak or sing after they discovered a haemorrhage on his vocal cords.
Smith tweeted today: "Dear all, I am very upset to announce I have been battling to get my vocal cords better the last 10 days but unfortunately they haven't recovered and I am going to need surgery.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Bad news. I have my operation booked for next week, so getting really nervous. But by doing this… <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=https://t.co/t1FueVPXQU" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-51466-https://t.co/t1FueVPXQU" data-vars-event-id="c23">https://t.co/t1FueVPXQU</a>— SAM SMITH (@samsmithworld) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/samsmithworld/status/596315132789133312" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-51466-https://twitter.com/samsmithworld/status/596315132789133312" data-vars-event-id="c23">May 7, 2015</a>
"I'm so gutted to be missing all the shows and events I was meant to be playing at. The doctors say I will be back in 6-8 weeks and I cannot wait to sing for you all soon."
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In a separate post on Instagram, he said: "Bad news. I have my operation booked for next week, so getting really nervous. But by doing this in 8 weeks' time I'm gonna be able to sing like never before so it's worth it. I am so sorry to all. Dreading the next month thou, I can't speak for three weeks after the op".
The Stay singer has been giving fans regular updates on his health through his social media channels.
He recently described how he had not spoken for three days following advice from a throat specialist in the US.
Commenting on his voice problems, he said: “So amazing to have this time to turn off, but it does make me realise how much I love what I do, and how much I miss you all when I'm not on stage."
