Hanif Kureishi suffered a fall at his Rome apartment that could leave him unable to walk, the novelist, playwright, and screenwriter revealed on Twitter.

In a thread on the social media site, Kureishi, 68, wrote that the fall took place on Dec. 26, after he had gone for a walk.

“I had just seen Mo Salah score against Aston Villa, sipped half a beer, when I began to feel dizzy,” he wrote. “I [leaned] forward and put my head between my legs; I woke up a few minutes later in a pool of blood, my neck in a grotesquely twisted position, my wife on her knees beside me.

“It occurred to me then that there was no coordination between what was left of my mind and what remained of my body,” he continued. “I had become divorced from myself. I believed I was dying. I believed I had three breaths left.”

Kureishi, the author of novels including The Black Album, Gabriel’s Gift, and Something To Tell You, is perhaps best known for writing the screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette, the 1985 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Kureishi said that he currently can’t move his limbs and is unsure whether he’ll be able to walk after the fall.

“At the moment, it is unclear whether I will ever be able to walk again, or whether I’ll ever be able to hold a pen, if there is any assistance that I would be grateful for, it would be with regard to voice assisted hardware and software, which will allow me to watch, write and begin work again, and continue some kind of half life,” he wrote. “I want to thank all my readers for their love and support over the years.”

Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.