Britney Spears’s Las Vegas residency may not go ahead, her manager has said.

Spears was due to begin her highly anticipated stint at Park MGM’s Park Theatre in February but postponed it after her father fell ill.

That was followed by fears for her mental health and she appeared in a Los Angeles court last week for a hearing over the conservatorship that has controlled her affairs for 11 years.

Larry Rudolph, who has worked with Spears for much of her career, beginning in 1998, said the pop star should not embark on the Las Vegas residency.

Britney Spears
There are fears over Britney Spears postponed her Las Vegas residency after her father fell ill (PA)

Speaking to US showbiz website TMZ, he said: “As the person who guides her career – based on the information I and all of the professionals who work with her are being told on a need-to-know basis – from what I have gathered it’s clear to me she should not be going back to do this Vegas residency, not in the near future and possibly never again.”

Rudolph added: “I don’t want her to work again ’til she’s ready, physically, mentally and passionately. If that time never comes again, it will never come again.”

Spears, 37, was placed under a conservatorship in 2008 following a public struggle with personal and psychiatric issues.

Conservatorship, also known as guardianship, is an involuntary status usually reserved for elderly or very ill people who are suffering from dementia or otherwise incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves.

Britney Spears
Britney Spears’s planned Las Vegas residency is in doubt (PA)

After the hearing on May 10, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny wrote in an order that Spears and her parents had agreed on a so-called 730 expert evaluation, a process usually used to determine the mental health and competence of a parent in a divorce case.

It was not made clear who would be examined, and whether it would relate to Spears’s relationship to her two sons or her parents’ oversight of her.

Spears’s ex-husband Kevin Federline has custody of their boys, 13-year-old Sean and 12-year-old Jayden, who have frequent visits with their mother.

Spears achieved worldwide fame following the release of her 1999 debut album  …Baby One More Time.

She has since sold more than 150 million records worldwide.