Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Just days before The Block returns to screens for its latest season, long-time host Scott Cam has revealed he is bed-bound in hospital as he recovers from major surgery.
The beloved tradie and TV personality has been off his feet for nearly two weeks and said he requires a walking stick to get around.
Speaking remotely to Hit Network’s Stav, Abby & Matt in Brisbane, the 63-year-old detailed his treatment and recovery.
“I am calling you from my hospital room which I’ve been in for 12 days. I’ve just had a knee replacement,” he said.
“They get you up walking straight away . . . first five days is not good, let me tell ya. I’m at the back end.”
Asked if he had been prescribed strong painkillers, the host said he had been tapering off potent medications as he prepares for his hospital release.
“I was on the heavy duties (painkillers) in the early days, (because) knee replacements are pretty big,” he continued.
“There’a a lot of pain involved but now I’m at the back end, I’m going home on Sunday and I’m still incapacitated a little bit with a walking stick . . .”
Cam won a coveted Gold Logie in 2014 as host of the show, which he has steered without absence since 2010.
However, the familiar face admitted recent seasons had deviated from the show’s “hardworking” roots, with the quality of contestants missing the mark.
“We had a couple of missteps for a couple of years, where probably our casting was a bit off. And we just were heading in the wrong direction, I felt. So we had some serious sit downs and chats, we got it back to grass roots, the people that work hard, people that put maximum effort in,” Cam said.
“That’s where we were lacking, choosing people that were too young, I felt, and didn’t have the effort.”
Cam said he felt the show “got back last year to those grass roots”.
“There’s always drama that pans out, but the building takes priority,” he added.
A veteran of the building industry, the carpenter said the price of timber and hardware had not dropped since the highs of COVID, and that such prices had also impacted the budgets handed out on the show.
