Matt Lauer Returning to Work This week

Matt Lauer (51) had surgery to repair his separated shoulder today, following his bicycle accident, where he hit the brakes to avoid a deer, and went over the handle bars. Tip: Only use the back wheel brake.

Jim Bell told Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS-FM radio show to give an update on Lauer’s condition:

"I’m hopeful if not Wednesday by Thursday or Friday at the latest, so our national nightmare will soon be over."

National nightmare? Uh, we like Lauer, but it’s not as though we can’t live without him.

Lauer could have opted to postpone surgery, to see if the injury would heal on its own. Bell continued:

"Matt said this was the right call, his doctors told him that. As you probably know, golf is very important to Matt. He didn’t want to face the prospect of swinging a golf club in pain for the rest of his days."

"So he had a little surgery and as anybody knows who’s ever been under the knife, it’s not a lot of fun."

Bell joked that the show’s staff was concerned Lauer might not "be able to get a tie on," but said the objective for the crew now is "frankly, we’re going to get that deer."

The deer seems to be some sort of phallic symbol that the crew are fixated on. If Lauer wanted the deer dead, he wouldn’t have put on his brakes. With his fixed shoulder Lauer will be able to golf, and dust bust, to his heart’s content.