Schumacher's condition better but doctors still unsure of future

In the latest update from Grenoble in France, where Michael Schumacher is being treated for a life-threatening head injury following a skiing accident, doctors said that the F1 legend had shown a “slight improvement” but was “still critical”.

Schumacher’s doctors said that they conducted a second operation at 2200 GMT last night after seeing a “window of opportunity” when the former F1 champion had shown a surprising improvement.

“We conducted a new scan on Schumacher and the situation is better. There is a slight improvement. We decided to do another operation since there was an improvement – we did it to reduce pressure on his brain. New pictures show that we have evacuated the hematoma and the situation is better controlled than yesterday,” they told the media at a press conference.

They also added that there was no worsening in the lesions but they do not plan to evacuate the other hematomas since they were not accessible.

However while there is a slight improvement, doctors refused to speculate on his future: “Scans also show that there are other lesions on the brain which we need to check on every hour.

“We can’t say he’s out of danger and the hours to come are still crucial,” they said. “Things quickly change in a good or bad way. But we’ve gained a bit of time. We still can’t say whether we’ve won but it’s better than yesterday. We can’t say what state he’ll be in when he wakes up,” they added.

Schumacher will also be kept in artificial coma for as long as the doctors think it’s needed and they ruled out the possibility of a hospital transfer because of his fragile state.

While this certainly comes as positive news for the motorsport legend, doctors in Grenoble said that the situation could go from good to ‘alarming’ in very little time and they will continue to monitor him hourly.