Michael Schumacher's agent has said there are small signs that the Formula One champion will wake from the coma he has been in for more than two months.
But the statement from Sabine Kehm tempered optimism with caution.
"We are and remain confident that Michael will pull through and will wake up.
"There sometimes are small, encouraging signs, but we also know that this is the time to be very patient," Ms Kehm said.
Schumacher was taken to hospital after a ski crash in the French ski resort of Meribel in December. He suffered severe head injuries when he fell and hit the right side of his head on a rock off the side of a demarcated slope.
His family has released few details about his condition.
Doctors operated to remove blood clots from his brain, but some were too deeply embedded.
Neurologists not involved in his treatment say full recovery appears increasingly unlikely, given the coma's duration and the extent of his injuries.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article