KTRK (Channel 13) anchor Dave Ward, who underwent surgery last weekend to repair his left hip after a fall on the set, said today he’s recuperating at home and hopes to return to the nightly newscasts the first week in February.

Ward, 72, said he was doing the same thing he’s done every weeknight for more than 40 years – walking onto the riser of Channel 13’s studio set to begin the newscast – when he tripped on Friday the 13th.

“It was 10 minutes until 10, and I go stepping up on the riser to the set,” Ward said. “Melanie Lawson was already there and I had my script in my hands and said, ‘Hi, Mel, how you doing?’ and I tripped on the last step, lost my balance, stumbled all the way across the riser and fell back on the concrete floor on my left hip.

“When I hit that floor, the pain was instant from my left hip all the way through my left foot. And I knew then that, oh, boy, I’d done busted my ass again.’”

Ward said the fall broke the femur at the point where the bone enters the hip socket. Surgeons repaired the damage, inserted a metal rod into the bone and had him up and walking less than 24 hours later. He was released from the hospital Wednesday and returned home to find a flood of get-well messages, for which, he said, he is very grateful.

“People are really nice when you get hurt,” Ward said. “(Longtime Houston TV host) Warner Roberts wrote me a card that said, ‘When Dave Ward hurts, Houston hurts,’ which I thought was so wonderful. People just come out of the woodwork at a time like this, and you get an idea of how far-reaching our signal is and that I’m accepted by so many people in their homes and have been for so many years. I’m grateful to everyone for their messages of concern and support.”

There’s just one problem, Ward noted. His fall took place on Friday the 13th — and there are a couple more Friday the 13ths coming later this year.

“That was going to be my kicker that night, that it was Friday the 13th, and that is always a special day for us at Channel 13,” he said. “I think I’ll get the chance to use it again.”

Ward recently celebrated his 45th anniversary at Channel 13. He has been the station’s lead anchor since 1968 and is believed to be the nation’s longest-tenured newsman at the same station. He also suffered a concussion and a broken pelvis while racing in a charity motorcycle race at the Astrodome in 1974, and in 2003 he suffered a broken leg in an auto accident.