Liam Gallagher says he would rather be in pain than suffer ‘stigma’ of having hip operation

Liam Gallagher has said he would rather be “in pain” than have a hip operation due to his arthritis.

The former Oasis frontman, 49, revealed that he would prefer to use a wheelchair than suffer the “stigma” of having major surgery.

“My hips are f***ed... I’ve got arthritis, bad,” he told Mojo magazine. “I went to get it checked and my bones are mashed up.

“The lady was going, ‘You might need a hip operation, a replacement’ - no way. ‘It’s not as bad as you think, the recovery will be a couple of months’.

“You’re all right... I think I’d rather just be in pain - which is ridiculous, obviously. I know that; just get them fixed.

“But it’s also the stigma, saying you’ve had your hips replaced... What’s next?”

He confessed that the condition was so severe that he was taking “herbal sleeping tablets” to fall asleep, saying the medication had “saved my life”.

“One of them, seven hours out, no pain, nothing,” he added.

“My new thing is Deep Heat. Caked myself in it on the knees and hips, the calves, then into the steam room for as long as I can handle it.”

Mr Gallagher said that he’d “rather be in a wheelchair, with (wife) Debbie pushing me around, like Little Britain” than have the surgery.

He went on: “I don’t mind a little pain. Keeps you on your toes. Pain is OK. I’m definitely on the downwards slide, though. Oh yes. My eyes are f***ed, my hips are f***ed, got the old thyroid. But we’re all going to die, aren’t we? Or are we already dead?”

Liam was diagnosed with hip arthritis in 2019, a decade after the split of Oasis.

It came just two years after he was told he had Hashimoto’s disease - a thyroid condition which affected his singing voice.

Oasis split in Paris after a string of hit albums in the 1990s made them the biggest rock band in Britain.

Liam is now recording and performing as a solo artist while brother Noel is frontman of the High Flying Birds.