The King of Pop, Michael Jackson is suffering from a serious fatal condition, and needs a transplant, claims author Ian Halperin. According to the writer – who is working on an unauthorised biography of the 50-year-old “Thriller” star – Jackson has a rare lung condition called Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, which, if left untreated, could be fatal.

“He’s had it for years, but it’s gotten worse,” Halperin revealed yesterday, the story reported in music industry magazine Billboard. “He needs a lung transplant but may be too weak to go through with it. He also has emphysema and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, which his doctors have had a lot of trouble stopping. It’s the bleeding that is the most problematic part. It could kill him.”

According to the biographer, Jackson (who’s also said to be working on his comeback LP, alongside hip-hop stars Akon and will.i.am), the singer can “barely speak” and the “vision in his right eye is 95 percent gone.” There’s no comment from Jackson’s representatives, the singer spotted throughout the year in public in a wheelchair and wearing a hospital mask – something he’s done for years.