Any Niall Horan fan knows the singer has had serious trouble with his knees. From surgeries to on-stage injuries, the “Slow Hands” crooner has been nothing but open and honest about his health struggles with fans over the years and speaking to Australian radio host Smallzy, Nialler explained exactly how this knee struggle began. Basically, it’s something he was destined to deal with. We know, NOT POOR NIALL but it’s true.

“I just think there’s something in our family where all of our joints, my hips, my knees, my ankles, my shoulders, apparently there’s a thing on my dad’s side of the family where we all just have bad joints. I had reconstruction on this left knee and this knee is overcompensating for that one so now my right one is now acting up. So basically if I run around for an hour, having played football or whatever, I come off and I literally feel like a 45-year-old man,” Niall explained.

OK, now this is just so sad to know a lot of people in the Horan family are struggling this way. Niall just recently took to Twitter to let everyone know his knee was acting up again and it just bums him out that he feels like he can’t do things any other 20-something adult would be able to, since he ends up in constant pain.

Ice packs and all!

niall horan ice knee

Niall’s knee woes go all the back to the early One Direction days and in October of 2011, he let everyone know on Twitter about his knee problems he’s had already been dealing with for a while.

Since that initial tweet, he has time and time again updated fans on how difficult it has been living with his knee struggles. There have even been instances on stage when he nearly buckled over in pain, like in 2013 when bandmate [Liam Payne] was joking around with he and accidentally ended up hurting Niall’s knee.

But it was in January of 2014 when the “This Town” singer underwent surgery to help his knee issue. He took to Twitter to share a series of messages to fans about his condition writing, “Hey guys, I know most of you have seen those pics today! Yes I’ve had major knee surgery, a much larger surgery than first anticipated, but I would like to tell you it was a complete success considering the scale of it,” Niall tweeted. “So all I ask of you guys is that you would respect my privacy as I try to recover and get [ready] for the Where We Are tour!”

He then showed up to the Brit Awards along with the 1D guys on crutches, nearly a month post operation.

niall horan crutches brit awards

He soon ditched the crutches though and was bad to performing on tour without any issues, and Louis Tomlinson even decided to get a little creative and draw a design on Niall’s scar.

So Niall was at the point that he could even crak jokes about his injury! But during a show in June of 2014, someone threw their phone on stage that ended up hitting Niall right in the knee. Jump to the 4:13 mark to see it all go down.

Niall doubled over in pain but he continues on, like the professional he is. He then shared a message on Twitter asking fans to be a bit more careful since he wasn’t fully healed yet.

Yikes, that for sure must’ve been a rough night for Niall. But he worked hard with his trainers to get his knee back n tip-top shape and in 2015, he let everyone know he had reached a major mielstone: he could touch the bottom of his foot to his butt. “First time I’ve been able to touch my [butt] with my heel since I got the operation. Sounds so dumb, but it’s a big day in my head haahah!” he wrote.

niall horan knee

Little victories! And while it’s clear Niall’s knees might always give him trouble, it’s nice to see he is staying determined to get better.

Watch a hisotry of Niall’s knee problems:

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