Michael Schumacher could recover in three years, former doctor claims

‘We have to give him time,’ says Grenoble hospital’s Jean-Francois Payen

Michael Schumacher in 2010. The seven-times Formula One world champion has now emerged from his coma (AP)

A French doctor, who treated Michael Schumacher for six months following his near-fatal skiing accident in France, has predicted that he could recover within three years.

Jean-Francois Payen - a physician at the Grenoble hospital in France, where Schumacher was first cared for before he was later moved to Lausanne hospital in Switzerland - recently visited the former F1 champion at his family home to check on his progress.

"Life after a head injury is punctuated by stages," Payen told RTL radio, also giving his three-year recovery hypothesis. "We hope, but we have to give him time."

Earlier this month, Schumacher’s teenage son, Mick, told French F1 commentator Jean-Louis Moncet that his father is "waking up very slowly" from a medically-induced coma.

"I saw his son and he told me that Schumi is waking up very slowly; very slowly," Moncet told Europe 1 radio.

"Although things are going at a slow pace, he has a lot of time, I would say he has his whole life in front of him to get back on track."

"His condition improved, and what is just as important is the fact that he is now at home with his family."

In December 2013, Schumacher suffered serious head injuries following a skiing accident in France, leaving him in a medically-induced coma, which he awoke from in June.