(Fox via Getty Images)

Phil Phillips, the guitar-playing "American Idol" contestant who some odds makers have picked as their top choice to win this year's competition, was rushed to a medical facility with abdominal pains Thursday morning, according to TMZ -though Phillips later downplayed the incident on tonight's "Idol" broadcast. 

Phillips appeared in the show's opening number and told host Ryan Seacrest that he only went to a doctor and was feeling fine.

TMZ reported that Phillips was complaining of "intense pain" in his stomach, and that people close to the singer suspected the cause was gallstones.  A source at the pawn shop in Georgia where Phillips worked before "Idol" told TMZ that Phillips was hospitalized in January for that condition.

Fox told ABC News Radio that it had no comment on the TMZ report.

Contestants needing emergency medical attention seem to be as much a part of any "American Idol" season as Randy Jackson saying "Yo, dawg."  Casey Abrams, Crystal Bowersox, Lauren Alaina and David Cook are just a few of the contestants who've had health crises during the competition.

On Wednesday night, Phillips performed Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" on the show.