Former Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has described Michael Schumacher's skiing accident as "bad luck".

The seven-time winner of the drivers' title has been in a medically-induced coma since hitting his head on a rock while skiing in the Alps in December.

Villeneuve, who was one of the German's rivals during the 1990s, told The Mirror: "It was just bad luck. He has spent his life living on the edge without getting hurt apart from Silverstone when he broke his leg.

"He took huge risks in motorbikes and actually broke his neck on one. That's just the way he was living. When it happens in racing it's somehow acceptable but when it happens outside racing, suddenly it's terrible. But really it's terrible anywhere.

"It's freakish because he wasn't even going at speed. He was going slow. It was just bad luck. That shows you that it doesn't matter what you do, when you're unlucky there's nothing you can do about it. It's terrible but terrible mostly for his family who are just waiting."

Schumacher's manager recently denied that doctors had been forced to abandon attempts to wake him up.