Ben Shephard has been absent from the Good Morning Britain presenting line-up in recent weeks as he’s been recovering from an injury on his knee. Ben was recently hospitalised as he had to undergo surgery for his knee after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). However, he returned to the ITV morning news show on Monday and updated fans on his recovery revealing his wife was “struggling” as he recovered.

Ben recently ruptured his ACL, a ligament that helps stabilise the knee joint, while playing football.

He also tore his meniscus, the piece of cartilage that provides a cushion between your thigh bone and shinbone.

As a result of his injury, Ben has been missing from Good Morning Britain as he took time to recover.

However, he was back on the ITV programme on Monday morning, presenting alongside Susanna Reid.

While on the show, Ben thanked his fans and co-stars for their messages of support.

“If it’s at all possible, could you send some of that love to my wife? Because she’s the one who’s really struggling,” he said, while laughing.

“I know let’s think of the real victim here,” Susanna joked.

Speaking about his injury, Ben told viewers: “If you’re not aware – and I’ve done my best to try and tell as many people as possible – this knee here, my right knee, I ruptured the ACL, I tore the meniscus and did various other things trying to pretend that I’m still only a 25 year old. Sadly I’m not.

“So, I’ve had an operation to repair it all,” the presenter told viewers.

“It was only when I explained it to Hillary and we were on air and he said, ‘Oh yeah well what the ACL does, it connects the bottom part of the leg to the top otherwise it just flops about a bit’ it all made sense,” Ben said.

Dr Hillary chimed in: “I love it when patients start using medical jargon like ACL. ‘ACL I’ve had an ACL.’

“Anterior cruciate ligament,” the doctor said, with Ben joking: “I’m an expert now!”

“But, it’s so far so good,” Ben explained: “It’ll be two weeks tomorrow post operation.

“That was me exactly just before the operation,” the presenter added, as a photo of his leg propped up in hospital appeared on screen.

“I’m glad to see you still watched us,” Susanna said, pointing out that Good Morning Britain was on the TV in the background of the photo.

Ben joked: “Well I couldn’t get out of bed to change the channel!”

As a video of Ben in hospital appeared on-screen, he explained: “This was me post op, having just enjoyed the sort of moments post-op where you’re anaesthetic and the pain relief is still very much in the system.”

“We noticed. Oh we noticed,” Susanna remarked, poking fun at her co-star.

“Well it’s really good to have you back,” she added.