An agent for Formula One racing legend Michael Schumacher has confirmed media reports that the seven-time world champion is slowly being brought out of an induced coma instigated by doctors treating him for a severe brain injury sustained during a skiing accident last month.

Earlier today, agent Sabine Kehm supplied a statement to the Associated Press (via Fox News) in which she said, "Michael's sedation is being reduced in order to allow the start of the waking-up process, which may take a long time."

Kehm made the statement to address speculation that doctors were attempting to wake Schumacher up after French newspaper L'Equipe first reported the news based on an interview with neurologist Jean-Luc Trowel.

The French neurologist is quoted as saying that a month is the most doctors generally wait before beginning treatment to remove patients from medically induced comas, and that even after waking, patients with serious head injuries can take years to recover.

The last update from doctors treating Schumacher was that he was in a stable condition. The F1 legend, who recently turned 45, fell and hit his head on a rock while skiing in the French Alps on December 29, 2013. Alert when rescuers reached him, he was later rushed to Grenoble University Hospital Center where he was put in the induced coma and had surgery performed to treat haemorrhaging in his brain.

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