Sparks' vocal injury can be overcome

NEW YORK, April 22 (UPI) -- The vocal ailment that has silenced "American Idol" champion Jordin Sparks will take discipline to overcome, a New York doctor says.

Sparks, 18, dropped off the Alicia Keyes tour due to what a spokesman at 19 Recordings/Jive Records described as acute vocal cord hemorrhaging.

"Sparks has been going nonstop over the past two years, and now she's going through the normal course of learning how to manage and care for her voice," the spokesman told Tuesday's New York Post.

The same ailment nearly ended Frank Sinatra's career in 1950s, the newspaper noted.

New York vocal cord specialist Dr. Jeffrey Libin said silence is a "non-negotiable" for the young singer.

"You have to cancel (concerts), I don't care if you're singing the national anthem at Madison Square Garden," Libin told the Post. "If you have vocal cord hemorrhaging and it's caught early, the great majority will resolve completely."