Lyon: Michael Schumacher, the retired seven-time Formula one champion, is said to be in a critical condition after undergoing brain surgery following a skiing accident in the French Alps. The doctors confirmed him to be under coma on Monday December 30.

The 44-year-old Schumacher was admitted to the hospital in the southeastern French city of Grenoble after the accident.

According to the hospital sources, he was suffering a serious brain trauma and had slipped to  coma on his arrival,requiring an immediate neurosurgical operation. He remains in a critical condition, while battling for life.

Schumacher had been skiing off-piste with his 14-year-old son in the up market Meribel resort, where he reportedly has a property, when he fell and hit his head on a rock.

The director of the Meribel resort, Christophe Gernigon-Lecomte, had said just after the accident,  Schumacher had been wearing a helmet and was conscious, suggesting he had not received life-threatening injuries. But later Schumacher fell into coma, only after which the doctors realized that the damage was worse.

At Grenoble hospital a surgeon and brain specialist from Paris was rushed in to oversee his treatment.