Offer to help ‘wake up' Michael Schumacher rejected by stricken F1 legend's wife Corinna, ex-teammate reveals
MICHAEL Schumacher 's wife Corinna rejected offers to help "wake up" the F1 legend, a former teammate has revealed.
Italian F1 star Riccardo Patrese said he offered to help the seven-time world champion with recovery, but claims it was rebuffed by his wife.
5
5
5
5
World champion Schumacher has not been seen in public since he suffered a serious head injury after a skiing accident in December 2013.
Pal Patrese said he believed a familiar voice would help the former Ferarri and Mercedes star to recover from his tragic accident.
He told Listofsweepstakescasinos.com: "Then he had the accident.
"That is a very sad moment. You know that sometimes if they hear [a familiar voice], some boys wake up, that they recognise a voice.
"I asked [Schumacher's wife] Corinna if they wanted me to go there and try to help if I could.
"Well, if I could, I would have, but they said, 'No, thank you'.
She said it's not the moment. But that moment has never come."
Schumacher's wife Corinna has spent the years since creating a private world around Michael as he continues his recovery.
Over the last decade, his condition has remained a secret.
Patrese added: "I know nothing [about his illness], but from the first moment of course I was in very good connection with Michael, because of the national team of drivers for soccer for charity.
"He was the captain of the team. When I left, I gave to him the armband of the captain and he was really very happy to do it."
In 2022, Late F1 legend Eddie Jordan told the Irish Mirror he tried to arrange a visit with Schumacher, but his efforts were reportedly rebuffed.
Many pals have previously tried to offer help to the F1 legend get back on his feet.
But one former teammate is hopeful that the Formula One icon is "on the mend" after his first public act in 12 years.
Schumacher recently signed fellow motorsport great Sir Jackie Stewart's helmet alongside dozens of other drivers in a touching move that has left many hopeful about his health.
His autograph marks the stricken F1 legend's only public act since his devastating ski accident in the French Alps almost 12 years ago.
He is said to have signed it with the help of Corinna as an image showed his initials "M.S" on the bottom right of the iconic white helmet.
What happened to Michael Schumacher?
MICHAEL Schumacher's life was hanging by a thread 12 years ago as medics tried desperately to keep him alive after a tragic skiing crash that left him with horrific brain injuries.
The F1 legend was given the best possible treatment as he was put into a medically induced coma, had his body temperature lowered and underwent hours of tricky operations on his brain.
Back in 2013, the retired seven-time world champion, and his then 14-year-old son set off on the Combe de Saulire ski run in the exclusive French resort of Meribel.
Footage from his helmet camera revealed he was not travelling at excessive speed when his skis struck a rock hidden beneath the snow.
He catapulted forward 11.5ft and crashed into a boulder head first that split his helmet into two and left him needing to be airlifted to hospital for two life-saving operations.
At one point his family were told to brace themselves for the worst case scenario as the situation was much worse than originally believed.
At the time, medics said Schumacher was likely to stay in an induced coma for at least 48 hours as his body and mind recovered.
But the coma ended up lasting 250 days - more than eight months.
After he woke up in June 2014, he was discharged from hospital and sent to his home in Lake Geneva to get further treatment.
Since then his wife Corinna and his inner circle of friends have expertly avoided almost anything leaking out about his health status.
Only small amounts of information have been released including reports that Schumacher was in a wheelchair but can react to things around him.
In 2019, it was said that Schumacher was set to undergo breakthrough stem cell therapy in a bid to regenerate and rebuild his nervous system.
Renowned France cardiologist Dr Philippe Menasche, who had operated on him previously, was set to carry out the treatment that would see cells from his heart go to his brain.
Following the treatment at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris, he was said to be "conscious", although few other details were given about his state.
Schumacher's teammate at Benetton between 1994 to 1995, Johnny Herbert, described the signature as an "emotional" moment.
He told FastSlots: "It's wonderful news that Michael Schumacher signed Jackie Stewart 's helmet. It was a wonderful moment.
"We haven't seen something emotional like this in years, and hopefully, it's a sign.
"Hopefully, Michael is on the mend. It's been a long, horrible journey for the family, and maybe we'll hopefully see him in the F1 paddock soon."
Schumacher now lives at a £50million custom-built property on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where he is cared for by a dedicated team of medical staff.
Only a handful of trusted people are aware of his current health status, including e x-Ferrari boss Jean Todt, his former teammates Felipe Massa and Luca Badoer, as well as longtime manager Sabine Kehm.
He recently became a granddad for the first time last month after his daughter Gina welcomed a baby girl named Millie.
The legendary Formula One driver is believed to have flown from his family's villa in Majorca to their Swiss mansion in a chopper to join his daughter before the birth.
Gina revealed she was pregnant shortly after tying the knot to partner Iain Bethke at a villa in Majorca last year.
There was speculation at the time that her F1 champion dad attended the wedding, but it is unclear if he ever made the ceremony.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
29 minutes ago
- The Sun
Great news for sports fans as booze ads ban AXED sparing fans a ticket price hike and boosting investment in grassroots
PLANS to ban alcohol sponsorship at sporting events have been axed — sparing fans ticket price hikes, The Sun can reveal. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has ruled out barring booze firms, it is understood, to the relief of football, rugby and tennis chiefs. 2 The Premier League agreed a four-year mega-deal with Guinness last season while ABK Beer backs October's Rugby League Ashes. Dropping the 'nanny state' ban will also boost grassroots sport, as cash trickles down from the elite levels. One senior Tory said: 'Sponsorship helps keep football tickets affordable and grassroots sports alive. 'You don't drive harmful drinking down by banning adverts, you just hit fans in the pocket.' However, partial restrictions on alcohol ads will form part of a ten-year NHS plan out next week, it is believed. They may be outlawed before the 9pm watershed in line with junk food and drink as ministers try to tackle growing health problems. Junk food ads are to be banned between 5.30pm and 9pm from October. We told yesterday that more than half of Labour voters opposed an ads ban by meddling ministers. Fury as cost of 12-pack of beer set to soar by £1 thanks to sinister new tax brought in by Labour 2
The Guardian
37 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘A three-week drama in daily episodes': curtain to fall on free-to-air Tour de France coverage
When the last rider rolls across the Tour de France finish line in Paris on 27 July it will mark more than the end of the world's most prestigious bike race. Once Gary Imlach and team have wrapped up, it will conclude four decades of free-to-air Tour coverage for British TV viewers. While the sport, and the technology used to broadcast it, have transformed since the 1980s, the excellence of the ITV programme (previously on Channel 4) has been constant. Just as British and Irish interest in the race has cycled through eras – from Sean Kelly to David Millar, to Chris Boardman and later Mark Cavendish, to Team Sky of Wiggins, Froome and Thomas – the on-air cast has naturally evolved. Nick Owen and Richard Keys first presented the highlights: Owen in '86, Keys in '87 and '88. Phil Liggett, for a time, doubled as presenter and commentator, and Liggett and Paul Sherwen were succeeded by the more cerebral – and no less popular – Ned Boulting and Millar on commentary. In an increasingly fragmented industry, though, Imlach is established as the face of cycling on terrestrial TV, blending journalistic rigour with a drily humorous style, a long way from the banterverse of much contemporary sports coverage. As he nears the finish of his own Grand Tour it seems apposite to ask the question put to countless out-of-breath stage winners down the years. How does he feel? 'There's a mix of emotions,' Imlach says. 'Sad that it's ending but grateful, too, because you can't complain after a 35-year run from what I initially thought was a freelance job. There's also a sort of a determination: we can't let the fact it's our last Tour get in the way of doing a good job. Inevitably, I've also been thinking about people who are no longer here like [director] Steve Docherty, who shaped the show for so long.' Coolness under pressure is another Imlach attribute; essential when the increasingly fierce French summer heat occasionally causes his iPad to shut down while live on air. How does he describe his approach? 'The first principle of covering TV sport is the first principle of medicine: Do no harm. Don't get in the way of the sport. But if you are going to add something, make sure it's of value.' In 1986, Brian Venner, the show's original executive producer, was tasked with its creation. The core team he assembled has shown remarkable staying power and some of the seasoned crew at Vsquared TV have been involved for decades. A deep well of knowledge, both of the Tour's unique intricacies and creating daily live coverage and highlights shows, is thus brought to bear. 'Adrian Metcalfe, head of sport for Channel 4, asked me to develop it,' Venner says. 'The Tour never had proper coverage in this country. When I worked at the BBC I'd followed a stage and was excited by what I saw, so when Adrian asked me I leapt at the chance. 'We developed various things technically, and things which saved money. We built a truck that had everything: A commentary position in the back, satellite dish on top, the whole thing in one. We even organised a chef. He went out every morning to the markets and came back with lunch.' Brian's son James joined in 1992. With Carolyn Viccari, who began as Brian's assistant and would become executive producer, overseeing complex planning and logistics, James Venner – like Brian an early adopter of new technologies – became a senior producer and remains responsible for the London operation. What makes the Tour special? 'As you get close to it, you realise what an incredibly tough sport it is,' James Venner says. 'It's the incredible scenery, the theatre in which it takes place. And as a challenge in TV, it's as complex as the Olympics but it moves every day. 'Doing any live TV you're on the edge, frankly. With this you're on the edge but you don't know if all the wiring and glue will hold. Professionally it's a tremendous challenge and a very satisfying one. From a sporting point of view it's this immensely hard thing, these brilliant athletes in the most wonderful backdrop.' TV affects cycling like no other sport. Sponsors want exposure, ensuring all those doomed breakaways, and James Venner explains how the introduction of Eurosport's pan-European coverage changed the race in the Lance Armstrong era. 'The teams could watch as they drove around and Armstrong used to play on that, he'd make it look like he was suffering. The camera would come in and get the big shot of him suffering on the climb. Other teams would say on team radio: 'Attack now, he's in trouble!' Then, of course, he wasn't in trouble. He'd forced them to attack too early.' As the end approaches James Venner shares Imlach's sadness. 'Nothing is for ever … You'd like to go on, and there's sadness that the team we've built has got very good at doing it. It's the last time we might see some of them.' Why do those team members, just like fans, become addicted? 'The drug analogy might not be the most diplomatic,' says Imlach. 'It's a three-week drama delivered in daily episodes. There's the bigger overall picture, but every day you have a self-contained story. There are all sorts of layers and complexity but I think anybody can enjoy it.' Imlach's break came via an NFL assignment. 'Mike Miller, Channel 4's commissioning editor for sport in the 80s and 90s, gave me a job doing travelogue pieces on cities where NFL games were played. He said to Brian: 'You should get somebody doing what Gary Imlach's doing on the NFL.' 'Brian took him at his word. I'm not sure it was entirely popular because the highlights were only half an hour and it was mainly hardcore cycling fans watching. I don't think they appreciated some ignoramus popping up with a piece about a fleet of motorised profiteroles in the publicity caravan.' The Tour has had its share of scandals, including the British-branded version involving Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins. Considering how a complex saga developed over time, is there anything Imlach would do differently? 'Hard to tell without going back and double-checking everything,' he says. 'Certainly there isn't just one Sky story. There's the story Sky told about themselves and there's the story that leaked out around the edges. It leaked out after the fact, we addressed it after the fact, but, like everybody else, we didn't get satisfactory answers out of the principals. 'Having declared this project of transparency, when it came to account for the discrepancies between what they'd said and some of the contradictory evidence that subsequently seeped out, Dave Brailsford never really did.' Brailsford denies wrongdoing and appeared at a 2016 House of Commons select committee hearing. There have been speedbumps on the way. It was Channel 4's acquisition of Test cricket that prompted the move to ITV in 2001. Like Test cricket the world's greatest bike race will soon move behind a paywall. The good news for cycling fans and Francophiles across the UK, though, is that Imlach and co have a final crack at it. When the race rolls out from Lille on 5 July, for one last time, sit back and enjoy the ride.
Telegraph
44 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Thomas Tuchel will leave England next summer and it could be hard to ignore Lee Carsley
In just over a year, the Football Association faces the prospect of finding Thomas Tuchel's successor. Appointed on a one-tournament contract, the German arrived with a direct brief: win the 2026 World Cup. In contrast to his predecessor, the 51-year-old's remit is straightforward. Sir Gareth Southgate was required to serve as a statesman, tasked with not only managing the senior team but overseeing youth development, internal FA planning and dipping into politics. He was a manager, whereas Tuchel is a head coach, with the freedom to focus solely on next year's tournament. Ending 60 years of hurt would etch the former Chelsea coach in English footballing folklore. Should he join Sir Alf Ramsey in leading England to World Cup glory, it would be the pinnacle, impossible to surpass in the England job. A return to club football would feel inevitable. Anything less than silverware, on the other hand, would represent failure – not just for Tuchel, but also the FA after its third roll of the dice with a foreign manager – and also likely mean the end of his tenure. The future, however, is bright. England Under-21s have provided a glimpse of what is to come during their European Championship defence, fronted by Lee Carsley, who is 90 minutes from matching Dave Sexton's achievement as head coach by winning consecutive titles. Should Carsley do so, he would then be in the frame to succeed Tuchel. In his tenure with the Under-21s, Carsley, aided by a world-class talent pool, has demonstrated his ability to guide England through a tournament. In 2023, the Young Lions won the Euros in Georgia without conceding a goal. Two years later, with a weakened squad because of the Club World Cup, Carsley has guided the side to another final against Germany on Saturday night. Although the pressure at a development tournament does not come close to the frantic nature of leading the seniors, it does offer a peek at Carsley's capability. In Slovakia, he has demonstrated first-class man-management, with numerous fringe players expressing gratitude for making them feel pivotal to the title defence. The squad are tightly bonded, thanks to his culture drive. The ability to build a tight-knit group is often the decisive margin in international football. While the group stage performances dropped below expectations, Carsley has showcased his class in the knockouts. After beating Spain in the final in 2023, England outclassed the same opposition in this year's quarter-finals. Spain set the standard at youth level, and their triumph at the 2024 senior Euros was a product of that. Yet in both matches against them, Carsley has prevailed. Luis de la Fuente led Spain to their Euro 2024 success after nine years coaching the youth teams. Perhaps the FA should follow that blueprint. With a home Euros looming in 2028, many of the players set to form the spine of the England team then – Cole Palmer, Marc Guéhi, Anthony Gordon – have already thrived under Carsley. Tino Livramento and Elliot Anderson impressed at this tournament and look ready to follow suit. When Tuchel departs, the FA will likely return to a domestic appointment; they rarely make similar, successive appointments. Carsley fits the mould: an insider who knows the system, enjoys strong player relationships, and prioritises development – evident in his senior stint, where he handed out eight new caps in six games. Appointing him would be a much-needed endorsement of the St George's Park pathway after the FA overlooked English coaching talent post-Southgate. It could be argued that England played their best football of the year while Carsley was in interim charge, winning five of their games and earning promotion back to Nations League Group A, all while playing exhilarating football. England's first ever defeat by 48th-ranked Greece is a blot on his reputation. However, it could prove a turning point in his managerial career. Carsley was forced to review every element of his tenure as interim head coach because of that dismal evening. From his performances in front of the media to his tactical decisions, he identified the areas he needed to work on and has improved as a result. At this tournament, he has also been polished in press conferences and diligent with his tactics. As he said on Friday: 'If I'm going to keep improving as a coach, I have to make sure that I'm learning from these experiences and not just going through the motions. I took a lot of things from the senior team. 'You wonder whether you're capable of managing at that level. It was something that I enjoyed, that I didn't feel drowned by. I was excited by the games. A period of reflection is needed after this tournament, but those periods are better if you've won.' Should Carsley indeed triumph then it could be hard for the FA to ignore him for the top job. Thomas Tuchel has made his own race across the world to support England's bid to retain their European Under-21 Championship crown. Tuchel, the head coach of the senior team, has been in the United States assessing potential bases for next summer's World Cup and watching some of the Club World Cup. Having been in Orlando to watch Manchester City thrash Juventus in the Club World Cup on Thursday, Tuchel has embarked on a transatlantic dash to get to Slovakia in time for Saturday night's Under-21 final between England and Germany. Tuchel had vowed to get to Slovakia to be at the final if England got there and he has attempted to stick to his word, even though it will have taken him two flights and a car journey to get there in time for kick-off. The journey will take Tuchel over 11 hours and involve three different countries. It shows the German's commitment to supporting Lee Carsley's Under-21 team in the final. England won the tournament in 2023 and can make it back-to-back triumphs by beating Germany in Bratislava on Saturday night.
