Today host Karl Stefanovic took a thinly veiled swipe at his mate Michael Clarke on Monday - days after footage of him intervening in the cricketer's blazing row with girlfriend Jade Yarbrough went viral.

Stefanovic joked on air he'd busted his 'hammie' - an apparent reference to the hamstring injury Clarke suffered in the Noosa fracas on January 10.

He made the remark after sports presenter Alex Cullen reported on Novak Djokovic's torn hamstring at the Australian Open, which the Serbian tennis ace says he has been managing with 'pills and hot cream'.

Back in the Today studio, Stefanovic hunched over his chair while pretending to wince in pain as his co-host Sarah Abo joked: 'We might have a hamstring injury [here] as well.'

'Can I get some hot cream please? Just done me hammy,' Stefanovic groaned while smiling mischievously.

'I don't know how he did it either. He just was sitting there and now he's standing up complaining about a hamstring injury,' Abo said.

Stefanovic joked that Abo 'wouldn't understand' his pain because she wasn't an 'elite athlete' like him.

'You can just pull a hammy by sitting down. Hot cream, please!' he exclaimed.

Coincidentally, Clarke's injury was also brought up when the ex-cricketer returned to Sky Sports Radio's Big Sports Breakfast on Monday.