Happy birthday to Michael Schumacher, the Formula One phenomenon.

As he turns 52 today, fans from across the globe are waiting for a miracle to bring him back on his feet.

Although it was usually plain sailing for Michael, his career was not without controversy.

In both 1994 and 1997, he was involved in collisions which determined the final outcome of the World Championship title. 

It was, however, a terrible skiing accident which would seem to end his sporting career. In December 2013, the accident left him in an induced coma and the German Formula One star is sadly yet to recover from it.

Nearly a year later, he was relocated to his home, where he continues to receive private treatment and rehabilitation regularly. 

A heartfelt tribute video to Michael has been circulating recently online in celebration of his birthday, which you can take the time to watch below.

He is generally regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time, having won the joint-most World Championship titles (7) to go with his 91 Grand Prix wins and 77 fastest laps.

His illustrious 19 season career saw him win an impressive 91 times, with his most recent win being for Ferrari in the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix.

He finished on a podium spot in half of his races (50.3%) and this success on the track resulted in 7 championships and 1566 overall points.

Statistics show that Michael raced in a remarkable 13,168 laps, which he found himself leading in 3937 of these. 

It is well known he used to check his blood samples during testing and then reached the same levels of blood oxygen during his gym workouts to teach his body to cope with the force and loads of F1 – it’s things like these that made Michael a cut above the rest.