One Direction band member Liam Payne has denied featuring in a nude photograph which recently surfaced online.

Payne, 21, said the grainy photograph of a man sitting on a bed wearing nothing but a black cap was not him, reports mirror.co.uk.

"Wow as if people think that weird photo going around is actually me lol think I'd rather tweet a full frontal than have people look at that," Payne posted on Twitter.

The picture in question was uploaded onto the social networking site, Twitter during the early hours of Sep 20 morning.

Within minutes of the photo being leaked onto Twitter, fans of the star jumped to his defence, declaring that the grainy image did not show their idol.

"I've seen clearer Big Foot footage," said one fan, while another fan added `some of that Photoshop is just...wow."