From injuries incurred during his punishing dance routines to long-term drug addictions and cosmetic surgery, Michael Jackson’s physical and mental health was always a matter of huge public interest.

During his 40-year career, his dramatically changing appearance, addiction to prescription painkillers and diet were well documented.

The changes in his skin tone and appearance were attributed to the skin condition vitiligo, which affects pigmentation, and lupus, a condition which makes sufferers particularly sensitive to light.

He had also undergone extensive facial reconstruction over the past 20 years. In 1979, Jackson had his first rhinoplasty (nose job) after breaking his nose during a dance routine.

However, the surgery was not a complete success, and it is thought that he has had at least ten separate procedures, including several more rhinoplasty operations and one to put a cleft into his chin.

Jackson decided to lose weight and became a vegetarian, claiming that he wanted “a dancer’s body”. He admitted becoming addicted to to painkillers, first after his hair caught fire during filming for a Pepsi television commercial in 1984 and then after an accident in rehearsals for a 1993 tour.

Rumours surrounded his eccentric lifestyle and habits and he was said to live on a diet of biscuits, painkillers and gravy. In the 1980s he was pictured apparently sleeping in an oxygen chamber.

During his trial on allegations of child molestation in 2005, Jackson was said to be suffering from various stress-related illnesses and severe weight loss and his attorneys reiterated his addiction to prescription drugs.

It is widely accepted that he had become hooked on the prescription painkiller Demerol (pethidine), and was also said to have been dependent on Valium (diazepam) and related anti-anxiety medications.

Jackson denied checking into a Colorado rehabilitation clinic in 2004 but tabloid reports suggested that he sought help for his addictions from various complementary health practitioners, herbalists and even a South American witch doctor.

Psychological assessments of Jackson during his trial suggested that he was “a regressed ten-year-old”, while other medical professionals implied that the singer had body dysmorphic disorder, in which the sufferer lacks awareness of how he is perceived by others.

His skin lightened noticeably throughout the 1980s but it was not until an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993 that Jackson denied bleaching his skin and said that he suffered from vitiligo.

The condition was said to havbe been diagnosed in 1986, after which Jackson decided to cover his blotched skin with make-up.

Vitiligo is a condition in which areas of skin lose their normal pigment and become white. It affects about one per cent of the world’s population.

Medical experts said that it was not possible to confirm the singer’s claims without assessing his skin “up close”.

In recent appearances, Jackson took to wearing a surgical mask — a disguise also commonly worn by his children — and also appeared in public in a wheelchair. This was said to result from a nagging back injury that plagued him for almost five years and caused delays to his trial.

Despite the singer’s frail, underweight appearance, the organisers of his 50 sold-out shows at the O2 Arena in London, scheduled to have begun on July 13, had previously insisted that Jackson was in good health. But his family lawyer, Brian Oxman, blamed “enablers” for pushing Jackson too hard in preparation for the concerts.

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