‘Today’ Anchor Savannah Guthrie Reveals When She’ll Return to Morning Show

Savannah Guthrie is still recovering from eye surgery, but she is already looking forward to her return to the Today show. Calling in to the NBC news and talk program Wednesday morning, the mom of two revealed that viewers shouldn’t be expecting to see her back with her co-anchors, including Hoda Kotb, until after the new year.

“I was kind of wishing I could come in at the end of this week, but the truth is I still can’t see out of that right eye and also it looks a little weird,” she said. “When the surgery was first done I looked like I got punched in the face … it was very swollen.”

“Now it looks pretty normal, but I can’t see,” she added. “The short answer is I think I’m gonna come (back) after the holidays.”

Guthrie was initially absent from the Today show for two days after her 2-year-old son Charley accidentally hit her in the eye with a toy train, causing a retinal tear. Undergoing multiple laser treatments in an attempt to avoid surgery, Guthrie soon returned to the morning show, sporting glasses, though not long after Kotb and Craig Melvin revealed that she would be absent for the foreseeable future as she had to undergo retinal detachment surgery.

The surgery went well, with Guthrie’s surgeon, Dr. Donald D’Amico of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, describing the procedure for Today show viewers Wednesday.

“You think of how you would put a poster on the wall,’” D’Amico said. “We’ve all put a poster on the wall with glue. You have to hold it for a few minutes or seconds in order to get it to stick. The bubble (from the procedure) holds the retina reattached in the eye, and as the bubble goes away by the body absorbing it, the laser treatment and the freezing treatment provide the permanent scar that keeps it stable.”

Despite the seemingly unlucky injury, Guthrie was actually lucky, as the damage could have been much worse.

“Fortunately for Savannah, the tear was at the side of her retina and not the very center, so the prospect for her central vision to return is very good,” D’Amico said.

For now, Guthrie is focusing on her “uniquely challenging” recovery, which involves her switching from lying facedown and sitting up each hour, and she’s even getting a little help from her children, including 5-year-old daughter Vale who is making sure she has plenty of peace and quiet.