Westlife's Kian Egan has offered a new update regarding the health of his bandmate, Mark Feehily.
Feehily has endured his fair share of health issues over the last few years, causing him to step away from the band in February 2024, having suffered serious health complications following a sepsis diagnosis in 2020, which led to pneumonia and several surgeries.
Earlier this year, the band had said that Feehily remains in good spirits and was heavily involved with them behind the scenes.
“He’s ok, he’s taking a step back at the moment", Westlife singer Shane Filan had said in a statement back in May.
Feehily's health issues have meant that he has been forced to sit out Westlife's ongoing 25th anniversary World Tour, which has included a huge run of shows in Ireland and the UK. The band have shows in Manchester, Belfast, Aberdeen and Sheffield on the horizon.
Now, Westlife singer, Kian Egan has shared a new update regarding his bandmate's health.
“He is still a member of Westlife. The best way to describe it is, he just doesn’t have the energy to do what we’re doing", Egan told the Kathryn Thomas hosted podcast, Are We There Yet?.
He continued: “He’s just not well enough to tour. Obviously we’re on stage for two hours every night".
“We try not to divulge information that he doesn’t want out there. So I think the way to kind of describe it is that he’s had sepsis repeated on him a few times", he added. “When we were on the last tour, Mark got sepsis, and then got pneumonia, and then he went back in for an operation".
Despite his struggles, Kian also told the podcast that he remains hopeful that Feehily will return to the band soon.
“He’s doing well. He’s trying to get everything back together and just live a normal life. Hopefully he’ll be back with us as soon as he feels ready".
“He did tell us to continue on with this tour. He didn’t want us to stop, so we were kind of like, ‘Okay, you know, if you’re happy, then we’ll go for it.", he added. “He will be back, he just doesn’t know when he’s going to be back to his full health".
Last month, Mark Feehily confirmed that he had taken legal action in England against a surgeon over health complications he had suffered following a weight loss procedure, where he claimed that a surgeon named Nick Carter did not remove a sufficient amount of his stomach during the surgery. More on this story here.
