Michael Schumacher 'communicates with his eyes' following 2013 skiing accident
3 October 2024, 15:20 | Updated: 3 October 2024, 16:59
Michael Schumacher only communicates with others by using his eyes following his life-changing ski incident in 2013.
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The F1 legend has been missing from public life since the accident over ten years ago, which put him in a coma.
The 55-year-old collided head-on with a rock while skiing in the French Alps, leading to a fractured skull and a brain injury.
Few details of his condition have been revealed since a statement released nearly a year after the accident told fans he was no longer in a coma and was “continuing a long phase of rehabilitation”.
However, ex-Formula 1 team boss and former QPR co-owner Flavio Briatore's ex-wife Elisabetta Gregoraci had previously revealed how Schumacher communicates amid his health battle.
She said: “Michael doesn't speak, he communicates with his eyes. Only three people can visit him and I know who they are.
“They moved to Spain and his wife has set up a hospital in that house.”
This comes as Schumacher made his first ‘public appearance’ since the accident in December 2013.
The seven-time F1 champion reportedly attended his daughter’s wedding last weekend in Majorca.
Gina Schumacher, 27, tied the knot with her boyfriend Iain Bethke at the family's luxury villa, which they bought for £27 million in 2017.
Guests were reportedly banned from taking their phones to the wedding amid reports the 55-year-old was present.
Spanish press reported in 2020 that Schumacher had been moved from the couple’s Swiss home on a more permanent basis to the property on the upmarket estate of Las Brisas in Andratx in the south-west of Majorca.
Rumours that Schumacher is unable to speak appeared to be confirmed by his son, Mick, during a 2021 Netflix documentary about his father's life.
He said: “I think dad and me, we would understand each other now in a different way now.”
The last proper update fans received was in 2023, when it was reported that Schumacher had been driven in a Mercedes AMG sports car in a bid to stimulate areas of his brain he once used for racing.
Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt has spoken about his recovery several times since the accident.
In an interview with a French magazine late last year he said: “Michael is here, so I don’t miss him. [But he] is simply not the Michael he used to be. He is different and is wonderfully guided by his wife and children who protect him.
“His life is different now and I have the privilege of sharing moments with him.
“That’s all there is to say. Unfortunately, fate struck him ten years ago. He is no longer the Michael we knew in Formula One.”
Schumacher’s accident occurred in December 2013 when he fell metres away from a popular ski slope while on a family holiday in the French Alps.
The F1 legend collided with a rock leading to a fractured skull and a brain injury.
Ski patrollers and a helicopter rescue team arrived at the scene within minutes before a helicopter airlifted him to the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble, a leading medical facility equipped with a specialised neurosurgery unit, for two life saving surgeries to reduce pressure on the brain.
He then spent six months in a coma to aid his recovery and did not return to his family home in Switzerland until nine months after the accident.
Medical professionals and his wife are thought to provide round-the-clock care.
A later investigation deemed Schumacher was travelling at a normal speed and was not skiing beyond his abilities at the moment of his accident.
