Schumacher progress 'painfully slow' - report

Feb.16 (GMM) Nearly 14 months after his late 2013 skiing accident, little new is known about the great Michael Schumacher's medical progress.

The 46-year-old is reportedly cared for by a private medical team numbering 15 professionals around the clock at his mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva.

But in a new report published by the UK newspaper Express, it is claimed the seven time world champion "remains mute with limited awareness of his environment", and still "unable to walk".

"Progress is painfully slow," said an insider. "There is no miracle on the horizon."

The report said Schumacher's family has now imposed a total media blackout on news about the former Mercedes and Ferrari driver, while tents have been erected to stop paparazzi photographing the F1 star.

"What tortures the public is the same thing that tortures the family -? progress is slow, progress is uncertain," Peter Hamlyn, a neurosurgeon and sports head injury expert, said.

"If you look at severe head injury victims who go on to make a good recovery - and I'm not saying all do - it will always be a story of years," he added.