Cliff Richard feared he would die over South Yorkshire Police sex abuse probe

The singer, aged 75, said he was left physically and emotionally exhausted by a two-year ordeal that began when South Yorkshire Police raided his home as the BBC filmed and broadcast live from outside his home following an allegation that the star abused a teenage boy during a Christian rally in Sheffield in the mid 1980s..

Sir Cliff told the Daily Mail he is now undergoing medical tests to establish if he has suffered any long-lasting ill effects from the strain.

Describing one episode the day after the police search - referred to by him as 'the break-in' - the famously keen tennis player told how he was taken ill on the court.

He said: "I went ahead, but I could hardly lift my arm up. I was told: 'Just take it gently', but I couldn't do that either.

"I couldn't understand what was happening to me. I thought I was going to die."

The veteran entertainer was at his home in Portugal in August 2014 when he received a call saying police officers had a warrant to search his Berkshire apartment.

But he said he was unaware of what he had been accused of until coverage of the raid appeared on BBC news bulletins.

He said: "That was my introduction to what they were doing and how it looked on the screen. It was really terrifying, really horrible, and of course that's when I discovered what I was supposedly accused of."

Sir Cliff described how the following day, with the media camped outside his home, he collapsed.

"I didn't know how I could face the future or face my friends or face my family. I was in tears, I have to admit," he said.

"I was on my knees in tears in the kitchen. I was thinking: "How can I get out of this? How can I ever climb out of this hole?"

"Somebody got me to my feet and said: 'You've got to stand up, you are not guilty, hold your head up, you can do it.'"

The case against Sir Cliff was dropped earlier this month after a review by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Nine people came forward to make allegations against the veteran entertainer, who always maintained his innocence.

South Yorkshire Police has apologised over its handling of the investigation, during which Sir Cliff said he felt like he was being used as 'live bait' for accusers with spurious claims.