Al Roker Sets Return to ‘Today’ Following Knee Replacement Surgery

Beloved Today weatherman Al Roker gave another update on the status of his health, telling his coworkers he’s expected to make a return next week, after recuperating from his knee replacement surgery.

Roker’s been absent from the show since May 9, and previously explained although he’s had “a number of replacements” that “this one has been the toughest one yet.” He shared earlier in May that this knee replacement comes after his first replacement 23 years ago, so surgeons had to remove the “old hardware and put new hardware in.”

Roker told his Today colleagues that he’d return to the show Tuesday, May 30, after Memorial Day weekend.

Initially, Roker felt good enough following the surgery to post a video of himself cooking on Instagram. However, the weatherman said, “My doctor saw the Instagram and said, ‘No, we’re not doing that.'” Although he’s using ice and undergoing outpatient physical therapy, he’s trying to stay off the knee as much as possible. His wife, Deborah Roberts, posted an Instagram message on May 21 saying the second surgery was “a little bit harder to snap back from, but he’s doing pretty well, moving a little slowly.”

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This surgery serves as Roker’s second knee replacement in just over a year, following the first in April 2022. The surgery was initially delayed when Roker was hospitalized in late 2022 for blood clots in his lungs and leg. After two months, he returned to Today in January 2023 with an emotional update: “I had blood clots, which they think came up after I had COVID in September. And then I had this internal bleeding going on, I lost half my blood. They were trying to figure out where it was.”

Through surgery, his medical team discovered he had two bleeding ulcers. Doctors rerouted his colon, took out his gallbladder, and operated on his duodenum, part of the small intestine.

“I went into for one operation, I got four free,” joked Roker. “So I got that going for me.”