The Friends star was photographed in public for the first time in almost two years while going for a walk on Thursday.

The actor wore trackpants and a loose T-shirt with a stain down the front of it and sported a beard and long fingernails.

In February, Perry, who has previously battled addiction to alcohol and Vicodin, sparked concern from fans when he tweeted that he had been kicked out of therapy.

He later told his followers to not worry as “I’m back in therapy where I belong”.

Last year Perry was rushed to hospital with a ruptured bowel and ended up sending three months in a hospital bed recovering.

At the time a spokeswoman for the actor said he underwent an operation in Los Angeles and was “grateful for the concern and asks for continued privacy as he heals”.

A punctured bowel — or gastrointestinal perforation — can occur along any point in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract, including the stomach, small intestine and large intestine.

Perry played Chandler Bing on Friends from 1994 to 2004, with the show’s finale one of the most watched television episodes of all time.

But despite the meteoric success of Friends — the show’s stars were reportedly paid a staggering $1.44 million each per episode for the final season — behind the scenes Perry was struggling.

In 1997 he entered rehab for his addiction to prescription painkiller Vicodin and completed a second stint in 2001 for Vicodin, alcohol, amphetamines and methadone.

Perry admitted in 2016 that he can’t remember three years of Friends because he was “out of it”.

The actor was asked on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show in the UK what his least favourite episode of the sitcom was.

“Oh my goodness,” Perry said.

“I think the answer is I don’t remember three years of it, so none of those … A little bit of the time I was a little out of it … Anyway my answer to your question is somewhere between season three and six.”

The actor opened up about his battle with addiction and getting sober in 2013, telling People he “couldn’t stop” using alcohol and pills during that period.

“I was on Friends from age 24 to 34. I was in the white-hot flame of fame. The six of us were just everywhere all the time,” he said.

“From an outsider’s perspective, it would seem like I had it all. It was actually a very lonely time for me because I was suffering from alcoholism. It was going on before Friends, but it’s a progressive disease.”