Michael Schumacher Losses 25 Per Cent Of His Body

                       

Stricken former F1 driver Michael Schumacher has reportedly lost 25 per cent of his body weight while in his artificially induced coma and now weighs just a little under eight and-a-half stone.

Today he is 84 days into the coma he was placed in on December 29 last year after suffering serious brain injuries during a low-speed ski run on the slopes of the French resort of Meribel. 

Helicoptered to the University Hospital of Grenoble, he was placed in the coma and has undergone two operations.

Although his family, manager Sabine Kehm and close friend Jean Todt insist they have not given up on the hope of full recovery there is still no concrete news about how optimistic his medical team are about him coming around from the coma. 

Doctors began decreasing the anaesthetics keeping him under a month ago but still he is unconscious with no signs that he recognises his external environment.

Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport and the major German daily Bild-Zeitung are now reporting Schumacher's drastic weight loss.

'While a weight loss in coma patients is normal, 20 kilos is a lot for people with normal body weights,' said Prof Dr Curt Diehm, of the Karlsbad teaching hospital in Germany.

Small, encouraging signs... Schumacher's family stay positive as F1 legend continues to make progress on road to recovery

'One must assume that his muscles have degraded greatly due to the immobility,' he surmised. 

Although Schumacher, 45, has his muscles and joints massaged on a daily basis while lying prone in intensive care, professor Diehm said this was not enough to stop muscle shrinkage.

Schumacher's wife Corinna, his daughter Gina-Marie, 17, and son Mick, 14, spend up to eight hours a day at his bedside, talking with him and praying for signs of a recovery.

It is understood the family have been told that only a miracle can bring about a full recovery. 

Doctors believe that if he does wake up, he will need many years of intensive therapy to regain full limb movement and speech.  

The worst-case scenario for the seven-times Formula One champion is being in a 'waking coma' - otherwise known as a permanent vegative state - where he is conscious but unable to move or speak.

Doctors believe that if he does wake up, he will need many years of intensive therapy to regain full limb movement and speech   

Schumacher remains in the thoughts of Formula One's management and its fans worldwide since the start of the 2014 racing season, with Bahrain renaming the first corner after the F1 legend, while winner of the Melbourne Grand Prix Nico Rosberg dedicated his victory to him.