Grenoble (France) (AFP) - Michael Schumacher, the retired seven-time Formula One champion, was in a critical condition on Monday after undergoing brain surgery following a skiing accident in the French Alps, doctors said. The 44-year-old German was "suffering a serious brain trauma with coma on his arrival, which required an immediate neurosurgical operation", the hospital in the southeastern French city of Grenoble said in a brief statement. Schumacher had been skiing off-piste with his 14-year-old son in the upmarket Meribel resort, where he reportedly has a property, when he fell and hit his head on a rock. The director of the Meribel resort, Christophe Gernigon-Lecomte, had said just after the accident that Schumacher had been wearing a helmet and was "conscious but a little agitated", suggesting he had not received life-threatening injuries.