Schumacher out of coma, released from hospital

Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is out of coma and has been released from the French hospital treating him, according to his spokesperson Sabine Kehm.

His management confirmed that he has been released and will continue rehabilitation.

Doctors had to place Schumacher in a medically induced coma after an accident on December 29, 2013, in which he fell and hit his head on a rock while skiing at the French resort of Meribel.

“Michael has left the CHU Grenoble (hospital) to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore,” Sabine Kehm said in a statement.

“His family would like to explicitly thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months.

“For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye,” she said, without giving further details about his condition or where the seven-time world champion was sent to.

His family said at the end of January that drugs used to keep the 45-year-old in his deep sleep were being reduced to bring him back to consciousness, but little had filtered out about his condition since then.