Phil Collins’ Health: His Diabetes, Kidney Issues, Knee Surgeries & More

Phil Collins is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist on November 14, after previously getting inducted along with his band, Genesis, in 2010. Although Collins has retired from live performing, he is a legend in the music industry.

His retirement came in 2022 amid a string of health issues. “It’s an ongoing thing,” Collins admitted in a rare January 2026 update. “I have a 24-hour live-in nurse to make sure I take my medication as I should.” He also admitted, “I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me.”

He previously told MOJO in 2025 that all of his ailments were keeping him from making new music. “I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens. But I’m not hungry for it anymore,” he admitted. “The thing is, I’ve been sick. I mean ,very sick.”

Scroll down for more about Collins’ health over the years, including a 2007 injury, diabetes diagnosis, and more.

What was Phil Collins diagnosed with?

Collins confirmed his type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 2017, telling The Independent, “Without going into the gory detail I got an abscess on my foot that went septic. I was told to spend a week in the hyperbaric chamber.” The hyperbaric chamber therapy was suggested to help improve blood circulation to his foot.

The musician has also been diagnosed with kidney issues, stemming from his past alcoholism. He said in 2016 that he started drinking only in moderation because of his kidneys being “messed up.”

In the 2026 podcast interview, Collins confirmed that he “spent months in [the] hospital” due to his struggles with alcohol. During one of his more recent hospitalizations amid other medical issues, he developed COVID-19 and his “kidneys started to back up.”

What happened to Phil Collins?

In 2007, Collins injured his neck while drumming for Genesis on the band’s 2007 reunion tour. He dislocated a vertebra in his neck, which led to nerve damage in his hands, he told Rolling Stone in 2015.

John Lamparski/Getty Images

“I had an MRI and my back and hips were just shot,” Collins shared. He had to have surgery on his back in 2015 to try and undo some of the damage (more on that below).

After the surgery, Collins developed drop foot, which is a “sign of an underlying neurological, muscular or anatomical problem” that results in “difficulty lifting the front part of the foot,” per Mayo Clinic.

“My right foot doesn’t have any up and down [and] doesn’t have any feeling,” Collins explained. “That, I’m hoping, in time will get better as nerves regenerate.” He fell and fractured his foot twice while dealing with the drop foot.

To this day, Collins also struggles with grip in his left hand, which is why he can no longer play drums.

What surgery did Phil Collins have?

During Collins’ 2015 back surgery, “the doctor had to go in there, work on the sciatic nerve, and take my back apart and unscramble the mess,” he said in the Rolling Stone interview.

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The surgery went “problem-free,” but he then had to have foot surgery from his fall that was a result of the drop foot complication. “My right foot is now completely numb,” Collins told Billboard in 2016. “It could be a year or three months to get feeling back. I have no idea.”

In 2025, a rep for Collins confirmed to People that the drummer had undergone knee surgery, shutting down claims that he was in hospice care. Collins expanded on his knee issues in his January 2026 interview, adding, “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.”

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Tuesday, December 8, 8/7c, ABC