Jimmy Kimmel's Sidekick Guillermo Is in a Wheelchair Thanks to an Injury

Anyone who has watched Jimmy Kimmel Live! for any stretch of time is probably aware of Jimmy's sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez. Guillermo is, like many talk show sidekicks, there so the host has someone to talk to and also to occasionally do bits of his own.

Recently, though, Jimmy Kimmel Live! viewers probably noticed that Guillermo has been doing the show in a wheelchair. Here's what we know about how he wound up there, and what his long-term prognosis is.

Guillermo, who is also Jimmy's "security guard," was given the floor in late April to explain why he had wound up in a wheelchair. Unsurprisingly, the answer had little to do with security. Instead, Guillermo had been playing basketball at the gym when he broke his ankle, as he explained on the show.

“Be honest,” Jimmy quipped. “Did you really break it playing basketball, or were you watching basketball and tripped over a bottle of tequila this week?”

Guillermo continued by explaining that he had been jumping for the ball when he landed on an opponent's foot and bent his ankle all the way to the breaking point. Jimmy, ever the scold, suggested that Guillermo probably shouldn't be hooping anymore.

“There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to accept that he is too old to play basketball,” Jimmy said, “and for you that was like 18 years ago.”

“I’m just worried how this could affect your job sitting there and not paying attention to anything I say,” Jimmy continued, suggesting that Guillermo might be even more useless as a result of his injury. Guillermo didn't say how long it would take for him to recover, but Jimmy decided to give his sidekick one more piece of advice for good measure.

“You should stick to rims that have salt around them," he said.

Although he has evolved into Jimmy's affable sidekick over the course of several decades, the joke that Guillermo is a security guard is based in truth. He started out working as parking lot security for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and after he fell asleep in Dicky Barrett's car and was caught, Jimmy offered to have him appear on the show. Eventually, he started appearing in sketches and found himself as the show's full-time sidekick.

Now, at the age of 54, he and Jimmy have been doing the show together for well over a decade. Although Guillermo is now officially hobbled, he'll be back on his feet in no time. Jimmy's rebukes about his decision to continue playing basketball into his 50s might have been harsh, but they had an element of truth.

A broken ankle can happen at any age, to be sure. But those types of injuries only get more and more common as you age, and now Guillermo will be in a wheelchair for at least a few weeks.