Michael Schumacher has not been seen in public since his skiing accident in December 2013 but a positive update on the 57-year-old F1 legend’s health has emerged
09:21, 26 Jan 2026Updated 09:24, 26 Jan 2026
Michael Schumacher suffered a serious head injury in 2013(Image: Getty)
Michael Schumacher is reportedly now able to sit up and is no longer bedridden after years of physical therapy. The F1 legend has not been seen in public since a skiing accident in December 2013 left him with a life-changing head injury.
Schumacher has been cared for by his wife Corinna and a team of healthcare professionals ever since hitting his head on a rock while skiing in Meribel in the French Alps. He was placed in a medically induced coma for several months before returning home to Lake Geneva.
His condition has been shrouded in secrecy ever since, with his family guarding his privacy carefully. Now 57 years old, he travels between his estates in Switzerland and Majorca and there has been a positive update about his health.
The Daily Mail reports that Schumacher is now capable of sitting up and can therefore be moved around his estates. While he cannot walk, the German is no longer bed bound and can therefore be wheeled around by nurses and medical staff.
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Schumacher is reportedly not suffering from Locked-in Syndrome, which means sufferers know what is going on around them but can only respond by blinking.
“You can’t be sure whether he understands everything because he cannot tell anyone,” a source close to the family told the newspaper. “The feeling is that he understands some of the things going on around him, but probably not all of them.”
The family remain based in their £50million house in Gland, Switzerland, on the banks of Lake Geneva. But they also stay in a £30m mansion in Las Brisas, in the south west of the Spanish island of Majorca, which Corinna bought from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez in 2017.
Michael Schumacher has not been seen in public for over 12 years(Image: Vladimir Rys/Getty Images)
Only a select group of family, close friends and staff have been allowed to see Schumacher since his accident just over 12 years ago. And the importance of that secrecy was shown in February 2025 when three men were convicted of trying to blackmail the Schumacher family.
They threatened to upload 900 personal photos, almost 600 videos and medical records to the dark web unless they were paid €15million (£12m). The files had been stolen by a security guard who had worked for the Schumacher family for 18 months.
There had been reports that Schumacher had attended the wedding of his daughter Gina at their Majorca holiday home in 2024. However, the Daily Mail says that was not the case and his privacy was respected instead.
Schumacher won seven F1 World Championships, making him the joint most successful driver of all time alongside Lewis Hamilton, and he retains a connection to his old team Ferrari. Ferrari’s former technical director Ross Brawn is understood to be one of the few people to have seen Schumacher since his accident.