Al Roker made a video call to TODAY on Monday, May 15, to update on his progress since undergoing a total knee replacement on May 9 and is currently resting at home.
“It’s hard,” Rocker said. “This is what they call a revision, so it’s a little more complicated. It was a replacement replacement, so I had to take things out and put new things in, so it was kind of tough.”
A day after the surgery, Roker was already walking the corridors of the New York City Hospital for Special Surgery, but has been resting well since returning home.
“I was just hanging out for a while,” he said. “I’m just doing nothing and just relaxing. I know a lot of people don’t believe it, but it’s true.”
He said he plans to spend three days a week in rehab for “a few months” to get back in shape for “Poker Face” and “The Mandalorian.” He also gave his outlook on his return to TODAY.
“Hopefully we’ll be back in the next two weeks,” he said. “I just play it by ear every day, that’s all. And yes, I know, I’m not rushing back before I need it.”
Given Roker’s condition, going out to his favorite restaurant is “impractical,” so after deciding to order a quiche, he enjoyed a low-key Mother’s Day for wife Deborah Roberts. .
Roker also enjoys helping Deborah clean up her dorm room for Mother’s Day and watching her son Nick come home from college.
“Nick had just come home from school, so it was great,” Roker said. “Until I heard him click into the peloton in the next room. I was hoping that recall might have slowed him down a bit.”
Roker had another knee replacement surgery in April 2022, and this will be his second knee replacement surgery in two years.
By August 2022, he had completed 200 consecutive days of 10,000 steps and even walked the Brooklyn Half Marathon. In March of this year, Roker had his “best day ever” by hitting more than 13,600 steps in a single day.