Schumacher Faces “Long Fight” for Recovery

Michael Schumacher faces a “long fight” for full recovery, according to the ex-Formula 1 champions’ manager.

Sabine Kehm made this statement on the eve of the first anniversary of Schumacher’s skiing accident. Her comments came after a newspaper report said he was making cognitive progress.

“We need a long time. It’s going to be a long time and a hard fight,” Sabine Kehm is quoted as saying by Reuters.

Michael Schumacher Was Placed in a Medically Induced Coma Following a Ski Accident in December.
Michael Schumacher Was Placed in a Medically Induced Coma Following a Ski Accident in December.

Former racing driver Phillipe Streiff, in an interview with Le Parisien on Sunday, said Schumacher was “starting to recognise those close to him”. He said the German’s movement is “very limited” but is trying to be able to sit upright, and that “long term… he could hope one day to walk with crutches.”

Streiff, who was described by the newspaper as a long-time friend, said he had gotten the information after being in contact with Schuamacher’s wife, Corinne, and with his surgeon.

But Schumacher’s surgeon, Gerard Saillant, denied disclosing any information to Mr. Streiff.

“for a year, I have never had any contact, verbal, written or physical with Philipe Streiff,” he is quoted by the AFP news agency as having revealed via a spokesman.

Kehm rebuffed Mr. Streiff’s claims that a close friend of Schumacher and that his other claim to have had contact with the two people named was “factually wrong.”

“I cannot confirm that (report),” she said. “I can only confirm that I do not know where Mr. Streiff has his information from because he has no contact with us and he never has.”

Schumacher suffered severe head injuries in a ski accident near the French resort of Meribel in on December 29 last year.

He emerged from an induced coma in June after treatment in French and Swiss hospital, and was moved to his family home on the shores of Lake Geneva in September.

Schumacher, who will turn 46 on January 3 won a record 91 F1 races. He had retired from the sport in 2012 after a disappointing three-year comeback with Mercedes.