Al Roker explains why he’s been away from ‘Today’: blood clots in his leg and lungs are the result of ‘excessive exertion’ The host took a break from his duties on ‘Today’ to recover from a blood clot in his leg and a pulmonary embolism was his condition.
A recent interview with ex-Today host Steve Burke, in which he explained why he’s been away from the ‘Today’ beat for the last month, has emerged.
Burke, who left the day-to-day work of the network in April, admitted he felt ‘fine’, but revealed the blood clots that have been plaguing him for several weeks were the result of his ‘excessive’ exercise.
Burke, who was forced to miss work after suffering two small blood clots in his leg and a pulmonary embolism, said: ‘The two clots that I had in my leg, where I’ve been out of work for a couple of weeks, were two clots that I had two weeks before I left ‘Today’.
The two clots that I had in my leg, where I’ve been out of work for a couple of weeks, were two clots that I had two weeks before I left ‘Today’
‘One of them was that I went running in New York for seven days, I think it was July, and I did an hour of running every morning. So I had a lot of blood clots.
‘The other one was also a pulmonary embolism, but it was much less. I had it after I ran on the Fourth of July. I’ve had it since then. I’ve been to the hospital a couple of times with that.
‘The hospital people kept saying to me, ‘Don’t worry, you’re fine, you’ve had the blood clots, that’s it.’ I’m fine. I’ve been in work a couple of weeks now, and I feel fine.
‘I just needed to be away from the ‘Today’ beat for a while. I didn’t do a lot of TV since I left, I’ve been very very busy this summer in the off-season.’
Burke was forced to miss work following the clots in his