Expert neurosurgeon sheds new light on 'frail' Michael Schumacher's last...

A top neurosurgeon has questioned reports that F1 legend Michael Schumacher made a rare public appearance to attend his daughter’s wedding.

Schumacher’s daughter Gina tied the knot with her boyfriend Iain Bethke at the family’s luxury £27m villa in Majorca last month.

The couple said ‘I do’ under an arch of flowers at Villa Yasmin, the property seven-time F1 world champion Schumacher’s wife Corinna is understood to have bought in 2017 from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

BILD has claimed that it is ‘very likely’ Michael was at his daughter’s wedding despite being virtually missing from public life since his life-changing skiing incident in 2013.

However, now, a top neurosurgeon has come forward to dispute these claims and suggested that ‘everything points to him being unwell’.

Based on the information available, I don’t think he leads a very active life. Everything points to him being unwell. As bedridden patients, most people become so frail and stiff that it is no longer possible to get them out of bed after so many years’.

Given the limited information that has come out about Schumacher’s current health, Posti insists that it’s likely the F1 legend’s conditions hasn’t changed.

‘It suggests that he has probably been in the same condition for the last decade. I doubt that anything sudden has changed at this stage,’ he said.

‘Typically, patients recover what they can recover for up to two years, and then the level of recovery is usually set. Essentially, these types of patients are very experimental models at best’.

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’, but few details of his condition have been revealed since.

Spanish newspapers had reported in 2020 that Schumacher had been moved on a more permanent basis to the exclusive property on the upmarket estate of Las Brisas near Andratx in the south-west of Majorca from the couple’s Swiss home.

Rumours that Schumacher is unable to speak were backed up 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 effects of a traumatic brain injury depends on a number of factors such as the type, location and severity of injury, brain injury charity Headway says.

It adds that symptoms of a brain injury are wide-ranging, from physical effects such as balance problems, headaches, and dizziness, to cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects. This can include memory problems, fatigue, and anger.

Posti continued: ‘There are various after-effects of brain damage. For example, the injury can make the patient unwilling to communicate with anyone other than his immediate family.

‘It may also be the case that no one other than the patient’s immediate family can stimulate him or her enough to communicate in a meaningful way’.