The painful cast injury that ‘Friends’ kept secret for decades

Hey, Joey — how you doin’?

In a harrowing incident that was kept hush-hush for decades, a 1996 episode of “Friends” took a turn when star Matt LeBlanc took a “cringe-worthy” fall while filming — and paramedics had to rush him to the hospital in excruciating pain.

During the much-hyped “Friends: The Reunion” special — which hit HBO Max Thursday — series creator David Crane revealed that production ground to a halt on the Sept. 26, 1996, episode “The One Where Nobody’s Ready” when LeBlanc — as lovable lunkhead Joey Tribbiani — suffered his show-stopping injury.

In one scene, roommates Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey fight over a chair, and, during their war of (nit)wits, Joey runs and jumps onto it to claim it for himself. That’s when things went painfully awry.

“I somehow tripped — and my shoulder came out of the socket,” LeBlanc, 53, explained in the special.

To make matters worse, they were shooting a “bottle episode,” meaning one that is set entirely in one location — in this case, Monica and Rachel’s apartment — and required all of the main stars at all times.

“It happened to be the one episode where it was just the six of them, all in it — so we couldn’t film other scenes,” said Crane of the episode, which chronicles Ross’ increasing anxiety as the gang takes too long to get ready for an important function at his museum later that evening. It was supposed to be an “easy,” budget-saving one since it all took place in one location and required no guest stars.

Because LeBlanc’s injury would take time to heal, the creators wound up writing LeBlanc’s new arm sling into the show; in later episodes, kid-at-heart Joey’s onscreen reason for the injury was that he had a mishap while jumping on his bed.

It turns out the cast may have jinxed LeBlanc, too. It was revealed in the special that they used to huddle before filming each episode — but mysteriously, they neglected to do so before filming that one.