Ferrari team pose with a banner reading "Go Michael" in support of seven-time former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher in Jerez De La Frontera January 27, 2014.  [Photo/Agencies]

'He sleeps but looks quite normal,' he said. 'I think he even reacted a bit.'

Doctors may have decided to break off his awakening for a variety of reasons, including reduced blood flow, a new infection or signals that the drugs lying in the fatty tissue of his body were not shifting as fast as they would have hoped.

Just a fortnight ago he contracted, and fought off, a bout of mild pneumonia contracted through the breathing tubes keeping him alive.

Now with the latest news the fear is that his hopes of making a complete recovery are dimmer than ever.

His wife Corinna, 44, and teenage children Gina-Marie and son Mick are constantly at his bedside, talking to him throughout the day when he is massaged, turned and cleaned while hooked up to a bank of machines keeping him alive.

They are said to be deeply troubled at the latest turn of events.

It emerged last week that Schumacher was involved in a road accident with a motorbike rider in Spain just weeks before his horror ski crash.

The Formula 1 driver was allegedly driving a hire car when he knocked the man off his bike when he failed to give way at a roundabout.

A court is still looking into the crash in Seville on November 17. The motorcyclist apparently broke his wrist when hit by Schumacher’s rented Audi A4.

The case is not expected to go to trial as the racing driver's insurer will pay compensation.

Wife pleads for privacy	Schumacher skiing off trail in crash
Schumacher, a blend of greatness and daring	Merkel fractures pelvis skiing, cancels visits