Sylvester Stallone Sends ‘Code Rocky’ Video Message to Nick Cordero After ‘Blue Bloods’ Star Wakes up From Coma

While Nick Cordero‘s friends and family celebrate the start of his “Code Rocky,” Rocky himself, Sylvester Stallone, has a special message for the Broadway star. In a video message posted by Cordero’s wife Amanda Kloots, Stallone congratulated Cordero on his brutal coronavirus battle, sending his best wishes as Cordero continues to recover in the hospital.

“Hello Nick. This is Sylvester Stallone. Obviously we’ve never met, but I only hear great things about your work and that you’re just a born star,” Stallone, sitting in a hoodie and speaking to the camera, began. The 73-year-old said he “couldn’t even fathom” Cordero’s “tragic situation,” but “obviously you have an incredibly loving wife, a beautiful child, and I know to have gotten as far as you have gotten, you got what it takes. You have the eye of the tiger, you have the talent, you have the will.”

“You have been dealt a horrible hand. A tough one,” he continued, “and it takes a strong, strong man and a strong family to override that situation.” He called Cordero “the man” as well as a role model for others. “All I can say is keep punching. You’re the man.”

Kloots posted the video on Instagram Thursday night. “CODE ROCKY!!!!” she captioned the clip, a nod to the universal term used for a COVID-19 patient’s recovery. “Nick will not believe this! Thank you [Sylvester Stallone].”

Stallone’s video comes one day after Kloots announced that Cordero, 41, woke up from his coma amid his coronavirus hospitalization, saying that it was “finally confirmed” after his medical team suspected for a few days it was happening. She said that the Blue Bloods alum is just barely able to open his eyes, given that he is “really, really weak.”

It’s been over a month since Cordero was first hospitalized in March for what was assumed to be a case of pneumonia. But after testing positive for COVID-19 in April, he was moved to the ICU, where he has remained. Kloots, who has been using social media to regularly provide updates on his condition, said at one point that he was “fighting for his life.” He has suffered numerous setbacks, including two mini-strokes, his heart stopping, resuscitation, a leg amputation, several bronchial sweeps, a sepsis infection, fungus in his lungs, holes in his lungs, a tracheotomy and blood clots.

Through it all, Kloots, who has been unable to visit her husband in the hospital, rallied fans with daily social media dance parties sending thoughts, prayers and all kinds of good vibes to Cordero. Kloots and Cordero share 11-month-old son Elvis, of whom Kloots posted an adorable photo on Wednesday to celebrate the good news. In the clip, the smiling toddler gives Kloots a kiss through the rails of a gate. “Kisses for Dada!” she wrote, adding the hashtag “#nickiswoke.”