Al Roker on Monday made a video call to TODAY on May 15 to update his progress since undergoing a total knee replacement on May 9 that now has him resting at home.
“It’s stiff,” Roker said. “This one is a little more complicated because it was what they call a revision. It’s was a replacement of a replacement, so they had to take stuff out, put new stuff in, so it was a bit of a bear.”
Roker was already walking down the hallway at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery a day after the procedure, but he has been taking it easy since returning home.
“Just been kind of hanging out,” he said. “Just chilling out, not doing anything, which I know a lot of people find hard to believe, but in fact that is the case.”
As he catches up on “Poker Face” and “The Mandalorian,” he said he will be doing three days of physical rehabilitation per week for “a few months” to get himself back up to speed. He also shared his outlook for his return to TODAY.
“I’m hoping maybe sometime in the next two weeks to be back,” he said. “I’ll just play it by ear every day, and that’s the thing. And yes, I know, I’m not going to rush back before I have to.”
He enjoyed a low-key Mother’s Day for his wife, Deborah Roberts, after they decided to order some quiche because going out to one of their favorite restaurant was “not realistic” given Roker’s condition.
Roker also is enjoying the return of his son, Nick, from college after Deborah helped him pack up his dorm room on Mother’s Day.
“Nick just got back home from school, so that’s been great,” Roker said. “Until I heard him click into that Peloton in the room next door. I was hoping that recall might’ve slowed him down a little bit.”
This is Roker’s second knee replacement surgery in two years, as he also underwent one in April 2022.
By August 2022, he hit a 200-day streak of walking 10,000 steps and even walked the Brooklyn Half Marathon. This past March, Roker celebrated his “best day yet,” hitting a record of more than 13,600 steps in a day.
