(MENAFN- Gulf Times) US Secretary of State John Kerry left a Boston hospital on Friday on crutches, nearly two weeks after breaking his right thigh in a bicycling accident in the French Alps.
He was met outside of Massachusetts General Hospital by reporters, who pressed him about the status of talks on Iran's nuclear programme - and on whether he was keeping up with his normally vigorous exercise routine.
"What do you mean, the condition I'm in?" he said, to laughter. "I'll be on these sticks for a little while."
He said he didn't particularly like doing physical therapy "with a gimpy leg, but that's what I got to do for a little bit."
Kerry was helicoptered on May 31 from the bike accident site to Geneva and later flown to Boston, where he remained at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"I'm going to be back riding a bike and enjoying sports like others, and I'm blessed that I'm able to be," Kerry said.
After the brief exchange with the press, Kerry excused himself.
"I got to get back home. I got my wife and my dog Ben. I want to get home," he said, according to the transcript released by the State Department.
On Iran, Kerry said his absence from the nuclear talks in Europe had no effect on the talks, because it coincided with a period when he had not been planning to meet with fellow foreign ministers.
He said he would be heading to the talks in Vienna after some meetings next week in Washington and would be present "for the last slog on the Iran talks."
"I'm absolutely driving for the end of the month," Kerry told reporters, referring to the deadline for agreement on Iran's nuclear programme. "I haven't missed a tic."
While hospitalised, Kerry has been in touch with staff by telephone and e-mail, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said: "He's been engaged with his team."
Kerry's chief of staff was in Boston to assist with State Department business.
Dr Dennis Burke, Kerry's orthopaedic surgeon and a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, said the former senator has had "an uncomplicated recovery" from surgery to repair a broken femur.
Kerry is walking independently on crutches "and working hard with physical therapy toward a full recovery, which we anticipate will occur in several months' time," Burke said.
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