Lord Alan Sugar has said his The Apprentice co-star Claude Littner is doing "very well" as he continues to recover from a serious accident.
The star will have to miss out on the next series of the BBC series while he recovers, with him set to undergo further major surgery soon after a series of other operations.
Claude is recovering from a bike accident that took place about a mile away from his Mill Hill home in the capital in April.
The 72 year old was said to be learning to walk again after injuring his right leg so badly during the accident while riding an electric bike.
Lord Sugar shared his friend's upset about not being able to do the series after his "terrible experience", but said he was doing well and was hopefully on his last operation.
He revealed Claude would undergo a six-hour operation either this week or next week, after "losing count" of the amount of surgery he has had since the accident earlier this year.
Speaking on Lorraine on Tuesday, Alan told the host: "He’s doing very, very well.
"He’s gone through a terrible experience. I’ve lost count of the operations that he’s had.
"The irony of it is he was simply going out on a ride on his bike. Not racing, not going fast or anything like that, just doing eight or nine miles an hour [and] came off. Horrific accident."
He went on: "He’s so upset that he couldn’t join this series but he’s doing alright. We talk every couple of days.
"I think he’s going in for a biggie, a six-hour one this week or next week, which is hopefully the final operation."
Speaking about Claude's replacement on The Apprentice, Lord Sugar said series one champion Tim Campbell was the perfect person for the job.
He told Lorraine Kelly: "Tim’s in, who better to replace Claude is somebody who has been there from the very beginning?
"Obviously the candidates, while sympathetic that Claude was not here this year, I guess must have secretly thought, 'Oh, thank God for that!'
"Then I said, 'No, don’t think you’re onto a good thing because I’ve got a chap here who knows it all, been there, seen it, done it.' In comes Tim Campbell."
Sugar went on to reveal it was likely the series would not return until at least early 2022, due to Covid restrictions and filming taking longer.
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV.
