Robbie Williams had quite the frightening experience earlier this year after he was hospitalised for a whole week due to 'abnormalities' in his brain. He was rushed to intensive care after suffering stroke-like symptoms backstage while on tour in Europe, though he still wanted to continue his series of shows.

Robbie Williams snapped outside the BBC Radio 2 studioRobbie Williams snapped outside the BBC Radio 2 studio

The 43-year-old ended up in the ICU for 7 days after falling ill backstage at a stadium in Zurich on September 2nd 2017, forcing him to cancel his remaining two dates of his Heavy Entertainment Show tour in Russia. He opened up about the serious health scare in a new interview.

'My left arm went numb and I couldn't stop dribbling out of the side of my mouth', he told The Sun. 'I had a headache and I was also having trouble breathing. I couldn't get a full breath.'

This was before his Zurich show and, despite a doctor being called to check on him, he insisted on going ahead with the performance. Needless to say, he wasn't feeling any better by the end of it. 

'After the show, my arm was still numb and my mouth was still dribbling', he continued. 'I saw myself as a soldier. I needed to finish what I'd started out, and I was going to go to Russia for the final two shows no matter what shape I was in.'

However, there was no way he was going to be well enough to go to Russia, and indeed once he arrived back in London, medical tests revealed some scary facts about what was going on inside his body.

'I had blood tests done, and I had various scans including ones of my heart and my brain, and there were some abnormalities found, including something on my brain that looked like blood', he explained. 'That was obviously very scary, so the decision was taken out of my hands and I was sent straight to the intensive care unit.'

'It's very weird to go from being on tour to suddenly being in intensive care, but that's where I found myself', he added.

To make matters worse, his wife Ayda Field and their two children were back in LA and therefore not able to come and visit him. But he can't praise the nurses and doctors enough for their care and attention towards him at that difficult time. 

'I was confused and scared, but I knew I was in the right place', he confessed. 'And, maybe naively, I felt like I knew I was going to be OK... They checked everything out and eventually, after seven days, they said that I was fit to leave the ICU. After that, I still had to have a final scan to check that I was okay to fly.'

After returning home to LA, he undertook several weeks of rest and started to help his body by doing yoga, pilates and meditation. 

More: Robbie Williams cancels remaining dates of his European tour

'I guess it's taught me that I'm 43, not 23, and that I need to look after my mind and my body better', he says. 'Once you've been on the planet for 43 years, you realise that, even if you've got everything that I have, you're not invincible. So from now on I'm going to look after myself a lot more carefully.'