The 42 year old, who suffered a near fatal ski accident in December, has been transferred to Lausanne university hospital in Switzerland, after waking from his coma.
His family today thanked everyone who had sent messages of support, saying: ‘We are sure it helped him.’ They also praised the ‘excellent job’ done by the medical staff at the hospital in Grenoble, and his manager, Sabine Kehm, said in a statement on behalf of his family that:
‘Michael has left the CHU Grenoble to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore. For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye.’
Relatives have said before that ‘it was clear from the start that this will be a long and hard fight for Michael,’ but this is the first substantial update since early April when Ms Kehm said that German racing driver was showing ‘moments of consciousness and awakening’.
To recover from something like Schumacher’s head injury takes months, and sometimes years. The German football team have sent their well wishes to the Schumachers from Brazil.