Seven weeks after undergoing a “hardcore” spinal fusion procedure in August, Carson Daly returned to NCB’s Today on Tuesday, saying he’s “feeling better in a multitude of ways.” He told colleagues Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones, “The future is bright, but there’s still a lot of work to do.” (Check out video of his return below.)
Daly, who has suffered chronic back pain stemming from a 1997 snowmobiling accident, has chronicled his journey on Today and shared that the last seven weeks of recovery have been illuminating as there’s a “subtext” when dealing with pain.
He said, ”When you’re in pain, you’re looking to just feel good and that changes your relationship with food and drink and your life. And then when they fix the pain, you’re left with these other complex areas of your life that you need to deal with and realign relationships with. So when I say I’m getting better, I’m getting better in a multitude of ways which is great; which is really great.”
This wasn’t Daly’s first official return to work as he noted he’d been shooting The Voice in LA last week.
The procedure Daly had is called Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion surgery, in which an intervertebral disc is removed and replaced with a bone or metal spacer. This is the same surgery that Tiger Woods had in 2017, and Daly, an avid golfer, said he expects to be back on the links in about six weeks.
On Instagram, he wrote: “It’s time to rehab physically & continue my wellness mentally. Before surgery my world was getting smaller & darker due to chronic back pain. Now, the future is bright again & I’m excited to get back to being the active dad I used to be.”
Here’s video of Daly’s return: