A high-profile doctor has given his assessment on Conor McGregor’s painful-looking leg injury which he suffered at UFC 264 this past weekend.
McGregor couldn’t even make it through the first round during his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier, with the doctor stopping the fight early on due to the injury.
The short-lived third encounter between the pair leaves McGregor trailing 2-1 in the series, but the pain of another loss might be overshadowed by the discomfort the Irishman is currently feeling in his left leg.
Over at FanSided, they've managed to speak to a doctor of sports medicine to find out all about the injury, the recovery and the future for McGregor, which has led to some fascinating insight.
What actually happened to McGregor?
“It’s actually a broken tibia and broken fibula,” Dr. Rand McClain told the website when discussing what actually happened.
“They’re both bones that we call ‘the lower leg’, meaning below the knee. That main bone below the knee is called a tibia, and to the lateral side of that is the fibula.
“As a bone it’s certainly much smaller and performs different functions, but the weight-bearing bone is the tibia.”
How do you treat Conor McGregor's injury?
McClain did provide reason to be optimistic for McGregor fans, however, saying that other fighters have returned from similar injuries.
“That’s a pretty easy fix,” he added.
“What they do is they drive a rod through the centre of the bone and the bone on both sides.
“You might look at it as a simple diagram would be sticking a toothpick between two marshmallows and then putting the marshmallows together. And then that’s what the rod is for.
“For the fibula, what they essentially do is actually screw the strip of metal. So bone is really good at growing together once put next to each other and that’s all they’re doing.
“There are other fighters to which this has happened, happens all the time in this sport.”
And there’s even better news for McGregor.
When will McGregor be clear to fight again?
Despite the awful looking injury, McClain doesn’t think that the 33-year-old will be out of action for too long.
“Looking at him as an exceptional athlete, I would be more likely to give him the okay to get back in the ring sooner than your average person,” said the doctor.
“He’s young, he would likely heal. I would probably say he can resume training as long as he’s not jumping up and down, he can start hitting the bag as early as three weeks.
“And then bicycle work, continuous bag work, and ring work at six weeks, and then again if everything’s going well, he would have full clearance.
“Most likely by 12 weeks to do everything else he feels like doing.”
What will the recovery be like for McGregor?
It also looks like it will be a fairly straightforward rehabilitation period for the Notorious one.
“You’ve got a very well-trained athlete who presumably will take great care of himself,” explained McClain.
“He’ll probably be putting some pressure on that fairly soon, maybe even some mild pressure within three weeks.
“Within six weeks, he’ll probably be clear to walk on it, he won’t be able to do jumping jacks or jump around. By 12 weeks, he can have complete clarity to do whatever he wants.”
Will McGregor's leg be stronger or weaker?
When asked if the injury could make McGregor’s leg weaker, McClain replied: “Certainly not weaker, but based on what I what I just relayed, you could make a case that is maybe a little bit stronger because not only do you have the bone now fully healed, but you could argue he’ll have a permanent extra support with the rod and the screws.”