A prominent neurosurgeon has cast doubt on claims that Michael Schumacher may have attended the recent wedding of his daughter, Gina-Maria.
Speculation surged after the wedding took place at the family's Mallorca vacation home, where Schumacher, now 55, is said to spend much of his time following his 2013 brain injury.
However, Jussi Posti, head of neurosurgery and traumatic brain injury at Turku University Hospital in Finland, questions whether Schumacher is well enough to be present.
"If a personal home hospital has been built around him, it sounds like he has mostly been an inpatient," Posti told Iltalehti newspaper.
"Based on the available information, I don't think he leads a very active life. Everything points to the fact that he is in bad shape."
"As a bed patient, most people become so fragile and stiff that being lifted out of bed is no longer possible after so many years," Posti added.
Although Posti admits he has no inside knowledge of Schumacher's condition, the fact that information is so closely guarded by his family suggests to him that Schumacher's condition has likely not improved.
"It suggests that he has probably been in the same condition for the last decade. I doubt anything sudden has changed at this stage."
"Typically, patients recover what they can recover for up to two years, and then the level of recovery is usually set," he explained.
Some hold hope for advanced technological methods to improve Schumacher's condition, but Posti remains skeptical.
"Essentially, these type of patients are very experimental models at best," he said.
Posti has also heard that Schumacher can only communicate with his eyes.
"There are various after-effects of brain damage," he explained. "For example, the injury can cause the patient to be unwilling to communicate with anyone other than the immediate family."
"It may also be that no one other than the immediate family can get the patient sufficiently stimulated for any meaningful communication," Posti added.
