Earlier this week, Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan failed to show up to work. When he returned to the desk on Wednesday, he was sporting a bandage on his hand but was a little secretive about the injury.
He told his co-hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, that he “had a little accident” and “lost a little bit of my pinky.” Strahan was already fielding jokes from fans. He added, “A guy before just said, ‘Michael, we pinky swear.’ Or something like that. There’s going to be a lot of jokes for a while but I’m OK and glad to be back.”
Numerous fans reached out to Strahan to find out the story behind the injury, and on Thursday he shared a video on Twitter about the accident, thanking fans for their concern. He revealed that he lost part of his finger while working on one of his cars. He joked, “I just won’t mess with the cars in the way that I was because if you do, you might lose a piece of your digit. That’s all I’m going to say. It is good because, you know, it could have been worse.”
Strahan was a defensive end for the New York Giants for 15 years before launching his media career. In 2016, he showed off a photo of his disfigured fingers on Twitter.
He isn’t the only TV personality who has missed work over a hand injury. In 2015, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon tripped on a rug and caught his ring on the countertop in his kitchen. He sustained what is called a “ring avulsion.” He explained to the audience after a two-week hiatus, “Apparently, the odds aren’t great and usually they cut your finger off, but this guy did microsurgery for over six hours and had to take a vein out my foot … He did it, and he saved my finger. I won’t get feeling back for eight weeks … and I was in the ICU for 10 days.”
A few months later, Fallon tripped and hurt his other hand on a broken bottle of Jägermeister.
