AceShowbiz - Niall Horan requires a knee injection before he can tour properly again. The former One Direction star, 29, is scheduled to hit the road in 2024 to promote his new album "The Show" - which is out on June 9 - and explained that, because of an injury he sustained during his time with the multi-million-selling boyband, he is in need of a medical procedure so he can take to the stage safely.

"I had knee reconstruction in 2014. That one has a big zipper down the front of it - that's fine. The other one 1 just tore the tendon that keeps my kneecap in place. I did an abrupt stop and felt it pop then fell on the floor like a sack of s***," he said as quoted by The Daily Star newspaper's Wired column.

"So now I have to get an injection into my knee, then they spin the blood and take it out. I've been putting it off, pretending I'm busy because I don't want to feel the pain but I do need to get that done because running around the stage will be no fun. I can't actually run at the minute - I can barely walk!"

Meanwhile, the "Heaven" hitmaker is also due to take to the stage at a series of festivals across the summer - including the Capital Summertime Ball at Wembley Arena - and sees the whole venture as a "challenge" to convert the regular festivalgoers beyond the diehards at the front into fans of his.

He added, "It's something I've never done before, That idea of knowing that the pit and first few thousand past the barrier are going to be fans. Then I just want to get that drunk person on the way to the burger van. I want them to be become Niall Horan fans. I see it as a challenge for the next few months!"