Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touch the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), the holiest site where Jews can pray, in the Old City of Jerusalem on Monday. Bolsonaro arrived in Israel Monday just ahead of the country's polls in which his ally Netanyahu faces a tough re-election fight. Photo: VCG

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro temporarily lost his memory after hitting his head in a fall at his  official residence, he said in an interview on Tuesday.

The 64-year-old slipped Monday night in a bathroom at the Alvorada Palace, the latest health scare for the Brazilian leader who was wounded in a knife attack in September 2018 while campaigning for the presidency.

"At that moment I lost memory," he said of the fall.

"The following day, this morning, I managed to get back a lot of things and now I am fine," Bolsonaro said in a telephone interview with Band television.

"I didn't know, for example, what I did yesterday."

Bolsonaro spent the night at the Armed Forces Hospital in Brasilia under observation and was released Tuesday "with the recommendation that he rest," his office said in a statement.

A cranial CT scan detected no anomalies, the statement said.

"I slipped and fell on my back. It was a nasty enough blow but I'm going to take care of myself," Bolsonaro said in the interview.

His health has been a subject of concern ever since he became president on January 1.

He has undergone four surgeries to treat the stab wound to his abdomen.

Earlier this month, Bolsonaro said he had been examined for skin cancer.

"My health is fine," he told Band TV, but added "there are some consequences" of the stabbing.

"One adapts to this new reality. The knife wound together with age is a dangerous mixture," he said.

AFP