GOODNEWS:Michael Schumacher 'now starting to recognise friends and family'

Michael Schumacher is finally now beginning to recognise his family and close friends, according to a fellow former Formula One driver.

The stricken F1 legend still has “limited movement” and has “yet to recover the power of speech”, however, claims Philippe Streiff.

The 59-year-old Streiff was speaking to Le Parisien regarding the seven-time F1 world champion Schumacher’s health.

He told Le Parisien that Schumacher “had yet to recover the power of speech”, but was “nevertheless starting to recognise those close to him”.

Streiff said he was given the update by Corinne and Gerard Saillant, Schumacher’s wife and surgeon respectively.

He said Schumacher had “very limited” movement but was working on sitting upright, and that “long term… he could hope one day to walk with crutches”.

He reportedly knows Saillant as a result of his own racing accident and subsequent surgery, while the newspaper described him as a long-time friend of Schumacher’s.

Regarding this update, Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm has insisted that he faced a “long, hard fight” to recover from the skiing accident which left him in an induced coma with severe head injuries.

“We need a long time. It’s going to be a long time and a hard fight,” she said. “He is making progress appropriate to the severity of the situation.

“I cannot confirm that [report],” she said of Streiff’s comments.

“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.”

Streiff, a French driver, participated in 55 Grands Prix but was forced to retire following his crash in pre-season training in Brazil in 1989.

Schumacher will turn 46 on January 3 and is rehabilitating at his home in Lake Geneva, Switzerland.