A journalist dressed up as a priest in order to sneak into the room where Michael Schumacher (pictured below) was lying in a coma, according to the German media.

Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm, told German journalists about the intrusion after a press conference in Grenoble. "Apparently a journalist dressed as a priest had tried to gain access to Michael's room," Kehm told a reporter from Die Welt. "I wouldn't have ever imagined something like this could happen." The intruder was reportedly escorted off the premises after his cover was blown.

Gérard Saillant, a leading Parisian brain surgeon and close friend of Schumacher's, seemed to allude to the incident during the press conference, when he appealed to the assembled journalists not to obstruct the clinical staff's work by cornering them for one-on-one interviews.

"In Corinna's name I would like to ask you not to pressurise us," he said, referring to Schumacher's wife. "Neither us, nor the family. You can do your best to help Schumacher win this difficult battle by leaving the doctors in peace. We are not hiding anything."

The intrusion appears reminiscent of an instance in 1990 when two Sunday Sport journalists dressed as medical staff in order to photograph the 'Allo 'Allo actor Gorden Kaye, who was hospitalised with brain damage after a car accident. The case made legal history in Kaye v Robertson.

In her post-conference chat, Kehm reportedly disputed that Schumacher had been skiing at high speed. She said he had stopped shortly before the accident to help up a friend who had fallen on the slopes. After picking up speed again, he overlooked a rock and lost control, hitting his head on a second rock.

• This article was amended on Tuesday 31 December 2013 to correct the year in which the incident involving the Sunday Sport journalists took place.