INVESTIGATORS PROBING MICHAEL Schumacher’s accident say his skis did not cause his life-threatening off-piste fall.

The investigators also said that signs marking the boundary of the piste Schumacher skied off just before the accident were in line with legal requirements.

French state prosecutor Patrick Quincy, the man overseeing the investigation into Schumacher’s accident said:

“He followed the red piste and went off piste. He is evidently an extremely good skier, but one of his skis hit a rock which was sticking out of the piste, causing him to fall and hit his head on a rock. The rock that he hit is eight metres from the piste.

“His position after he fell was nine metres from the piste. So we have examined the film that was realised from his helmet. It is perfectly clear and gave us a lot of information, confirming all of the information we already had. We use this film to create a reconstruction.”

We know the state of the snow wasn’t great in that area [where Schumacher had his accident] but I’m not really analysing that at the moment. We have around 50 serious accidents in the area every year, so we are used to doing these investigations.”

Quincy added that the former Formula One driver’s speed at the time of the crash remains unknown.

“There is a confusion among the terms used by medics which speak about the impact to his head, Quincy told the BBC. “So we cannot really say what speed he was going based on the injuries he received to his head. We will have to speak to experts about this. But to be honest, how fast he was going is not really important to our investigations at the moment.”

“There are some French rules and as far as we can see from the initial investigations it doesn’t look as though as he has broken these.”

The German, 45, is critical but stable after suffering major head injuries.

- Additional reporting by AFP.

Irishman McGee’s Australian Open bid falls at first hurdle

Here’s tonight’s fixtures in the O’Byrne Cup and Dr McKenna Cup