Phil Collins is sparking fresh concerns as his declining health raises fears that “the end is near.”

According to Radar Online, the 74-year-old English musician and songwriter is recovering from the wounds of his knee operation but his overall health is rapidly deteriorating after years of unhealthy lifestyle habits, due to which doctors had informed him he might end up in a wheelchair.

The insider told the outlet that despite enduring a series of health challenges, the recent knee surgery has brutally affected Collins.

“He’s suffered a series of setbacks, from diabetes to nerve damage and spinal surgery and drop foot,” the source close to the One More Night crooner revealed.

“Now he can barely walk and is unable to do basic things. Drumming is no longer an option thanks to his limited mobility. He needs a wheelchair or a cane at the very least to get around,” they noted.

“There are fears he may wind up crippled. People still worry the end is near,” stated the insider.

For the unversed, the former member of Flaming Youth had a spinal surgery for nerve damage, as he dislocated a vertebra in his neck while drumming during a Genesis reunion tour in 2007.

It is pertinent to mention that Phil Collins also developed drop foot, which causes difficulty in lifting the front of the foot because of paralysis and weakness of particular muscles in one’s foot.

Madagascar held a ceremony Tuesday marking the return of three skulls kept by France for 128 years, including one believed to be that of a Malagasy king decapitated by French troops in the 19th century.

France handed over the skulls in Paris on August 27 in the first such restitution since it passed a law in 2023 facilitating the return of human remains taken during its colonial conquests.

The skulls are believed to belong to King Toera, leader of the Sakalava people, who was beheaded by French troops in 1897, and two of his warriors.

They arrived in Madagascar late Monday and were received at the airport by members of the Sakalava group dressed in traditional robes.

Held in three boxes draped with the flag of the Indian Ocean nation, the skulls were driven through the capital Antananarivo to the city’s mausoleum Tuesday, where they were received by President Andry Rajoelina and a gathering of government and Sakalava dignitaries.

They will continue their journey by road to the west coast area of Belo Tsiribihina, about 320 kilometres (200 miles) from the capital, where they are expected to be buried later this week.

The skulls were taken to France as trophies and kept in Paris’s national history museum alongside hundreds of other remains from Madagascar, which declared independence in 1960 after more than 60 years of French colonial rule.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said at the Paris event that a joint scientific committee confirmed they were from the Sakalava people but said it could only “presume” that one belonged to King Toera.

France has in recent years sent back various artefacts taken during its imperial conquests, but each time required special legislation until parliament adopted the law simplifying the repatriation of human remains.

Thumbnail image by Reuters — File image of a skull of Namibian genocide victim