Michael Schumacher communicates with his eyes and lives in villa converted to hospital, Flavio Briatore’s ex-wife claims
MICHAEL Schumacher can’t speak but communicates with his eyes and is being cared for at a villa converted into a hospital in Majorca, according to Flavio Briatore’s ex-wife.
The F1 legend has reportedly been moved from his Swiss home to a luxurious property that his wife Corinna bought from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.
Reports in Spain identified the property as Villa Yasmin, on the upmarket estate of Las Brisas near Andratx in the south-west of the island.
Corinna is said to have bought it in 2017 and added medical facilities to care for her stricken husband.
Respected island daily Diario de Mallorca and Catalan daily La Vanguardia published their reports following comments by the ex-wife of former QPR co-owner Briatore, who was Schuey’s boss at the Benetton F1 Team.
Italian model and TV star Elisabetta Gregoraci, 40, claimed: “Michael doesn’t speak, he communicates with his eyes.
“Only three people can visit him and I know who they are.”
Speaking on the Italian version of Big Brother, she added, in comments echoed by Spanish press: “They moved to Spain and his wife has set up a hospital in that house.”
Schumacher, 51, won two F1 titles with Benetton and a record five in a row with Ferrari.
German tabloid Bild first linked Schuey to Perez’s Majorca mansion in July 2018, saying Corinna had bought it for £27million so she could spend holidays there with her children and friends.
The house was bought by building magnate Perez in 2005 but he put it up for sale in 2017 after the death of his wife Mari Angeles Sandoval.
The villa is part of a 15,000 square metre estate which boasts two swimming pools, a helipad, a gym and a huge palm-tree-fringed garden.
‘HE IS FIGHTING’
Schumacher, the only driver to win seven F1 Championships, suffered a near-fatal brain injury in 2013 after falling and cracking his head while skiing in the French Alps.
He was placed in a medically induced coma at Grenoble hospital, then was moved for further rehabilitation at the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He was moved again in September 2014 to the family home on the shores of Lake Geneva, with a team doctors providing round-the-clock care.
Since then Schumi’s health has mostly been shrouded in secrecy.
Ex-Ferrari boss Jean Todt, one of a handful of visitors, said in July: “He is fighting. I hope the world will be able to see him again.
“This is what he and his family are working towards.”
Last week renowned neurosurgeon Erich Riederer claimed there was little chance Schumacher would ever make a full recovery.
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The surgeon, thought to have been giving his opinion as an outsider, said in a documentary on French television station TMC: “I think he’s in a vegetative state, which means he’s awake but not responding.
“He is breathing, his heart is beating, he can probably sit up and take baby steps with help, but no more.
“I think that’s the maximum for him. Is there any chance of seeing him like he was before his accident? I really don’t think so.”
