WAPL morning co-host Rick McNeal continues recovery from painful bacterial infection that has kept him off the air since March

APPLETON - WAPL-FM’s Rick McNeal may be temporarily out of commission, but his sense of humor is alive and well.

The classic rock station's longtime morning co-host has been off the air since becoming ill in mid-March. In a post on “The Rick and Cutter Show” Facebook page on March 26, McNeal explained he had fallen in his apartment on March 15 and spent two days trying to get back up.

“During those 48 hours, my left leg, which had become quite scraped up, developed a bad case of cellulitis: an extremely painful bacterial infection involving the inner layers of the skin. How could we make that worse? A blood clot in the same leg,” he wrote.

At the time of the post, McNeal said he had been in the hospital for nine days and was to be moved to “a rehab facility.”

“It's ironic that I would end up at a rehab facility that has nothing to do with alcohol,” he joked in the post.

McNeal’s morning show co-host of the last three years, Andrew “Cutter” Puyleart, has been carrying on from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays with fill-in co-hosts Chuggs and Rylan.

On Thursday, McNeal offered listeners an update on his progress in a new Facebook post, his humor very much intact. He reported that he’s on a med that makes him thirsty all the time and a new antibiotic that makes water taste like he’s drinking a glass of rusty nails.

"Not a good combo," he wrote. "On the bright side, I took my first Vicodin today. As a result, I was able to stand on my infected leg for the first time since this started without assistance busting pain. Plus, I threw a 40 yard touchdown strike off the back foot to Greg Jennings. Amazing drug."

(Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre has talked openly about his addiction to Vicodin, a painkiller, during his time in the NFL.)

McNeal noted in his original post that cellulitis is one of the slowest bacterial infections to heal and he was unsure how many weeks it would take before he could return.

“It's still going to be while before I'm back,” he wrote on Thursday. “Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes. And as Martin Short always says when responding to the audience applause during his introductions on talk shows...’thanks for remembering!’”

The show’s Facebook page has been flooded with hundreds of messages wishing McNeal healing and recovery — and at least one reminder to “make sure you do your therapy whether you like it or not.”

His time at WAPL, a Woodward Radio Group station, goes back to the 1980s, including more than 30 years with Len Nelson as co-hosts of "The Rick & Len Show."

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or [email protected]. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert. 

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: WAPL-FM morning co-host Rick McNeal continues recovery from infection