Michael Schumacher is paralysed and still has difficulty with his speech and memory almost a year after a freak skiing accident, good friend and former Formula One driver Philippe Streiff says.

Streiff, a Frenchman, was seriously injured in pre-season testing for a race in Brazil in 1989, leaving him a quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair ever since.

“It’s very difficult. He can’t speak. Like me, he is in a wheelchair, paralysed. He has memory problems and speech problems,” Streiff is reported to have told French radio.

Schumacher’s family have released very little information to the media about the former world champion’s accident.

What is known is that the accident happened on December 29, 2013, with doctors performing head surgery later that day and again on December 31 to relieve pressure on Schumacher’s brain. He was then placed in an induced coma for almost six months.

In June, Schumacher left intensive care at Grenoble Hospital in France and was transferred to Lausanne Hospital in Switzerland for rehabilitation.

He is now being cared for at his home on the shores of Lake Geneva by his wife and private medical staff.

Schumacher’s spokeswoman Sabine Kehm would not confirm or deny Streiff’s comments, saying only that “he did not have contact with us” and that the comments were “his opinions”.

French investigators launched a criminal investigation earlier in the year to see if the ski resort in Meribel, where Schumacher owns a chalet, was responsible for his injuries.

A camera mounted on Schumacher’s ski helmet, which cracked into two pieces in the accident, showed complete footage of his fall.

The footage determined that Schumacher, an expert skier, had chosen to go “off piste” (taking a ski run that is not designated or groomed by the resort) and so the resort was deemed not to be responsible for his injuries.

The police ruled out foul play and closed the criminal investigation on February 18.