Zayn Malik skips One Direction appearance due to illness

Zayn Malik was absent during a One Direction promotional appearance on Monday (17Nov14) because he is battling a stomach bug.

The What Makes You Beautiful hitmakers took part in the recording of the new Band Aid 30 charity single in London on Saturday (15Nov14), and then traveled to Orlando, Florida to perform a free show at the Universal Studios theme park.

However, Malik was missing from the concert and bandmate Liam Payne tells Today show host Matt Lauer that they only found out he was not in Florida that morning.

Payne says, "He's got a tummy bug so he's not very well... We only found out this morning so we're really sad, he is (sad) as well, that he can't be here for our album release."

Malik's representative tells Mirror.co.uk, "Zayn was taken ill after recording the Band Aid single at the weekend and was unfortunately not well enough to fly to the USA yesterday. He will join the band for promotion for the new album as soon as he possibly can."

Their latest album Four is released on Monday.