Liam Payne’s distressed mum is “worried sick” about her hospitalised son.

Karen Payne spoke of her fears for her former One Director singer boy, 30, after he was rushed for emergency treatment in Milan, Italy, after being stricken with agonising kidney pain on a visit to Lake Como with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy.

She told Mail Online about how she has been told Liam will likely be in hospital for “a week” while testing and observation is carried out: “We are all worried sick about it but we just have to get on.

“It’s horrible – him being all the way over there.

“It’s such a horrible situation and we just hope he’s in the best place possible.”

Liam’s health scare hit him weeks after he told fans he had been in hospital with a serious kidney infection, which last month forced him to cancel his first solo tour.

A source told The Sun: “Liam is in a bad way but he’s in the best place he can be and finally doctors will be able to get to the bottom of what is going on.

“Naturally he is gutted that his and Kate’s trip to Lake Como has been ruined but at least she was there to help him when he fell ill.

“Doctors have warned him not to expect to be signed off to go home for at least another six days.

“They want to do every test possible to understand the issue fully but they now suspect that there has been an underlying issue for a while that has been getting worse.”

Liam – who has son Bear, five, with his 40-year-old singer ex Cheryl – said earlier this year how he was almost six months sober after drinking heavily while in One Direction, and he’s spent the majority of 2023 working on his second album.

In a video to fans about cancelling his tour over health woes, he said: “Over the past week I’ve been in hospital with a serious kidney infection, it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and doctors’ orders are that I now need to rest and recover.

“I was beyond excited to come play for you guys.

“To all of you who have bought tickets: I’m so sorry.”

Liam also recently revealed he spent 100 days in a rehab facility in Louisiana, saying he would regularly empty mini-bars on world tours with One Direction before the group split in 2015.