Conor McGregor is resting with recovery already on his mind following a successful surgery to repair the damage done from a broken leg suffered in his fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.
The injury occurred after McGregor threw a punch and stepped backward, and then his leg just folded underneath him as he felt the bone break in the octagon. Medical personnel rushed into assist him as an air cast was put around his leg and he was carried out of the octagon on a stretcher.
Poirier was declared the winner by TKO due to a doctor’s stoppage at the 5:00 of the first round.
On Sunday, McGregor underwent a three-hour surgery on his leg with Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Dr. Milton Little, head of Sports Trauma at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, performing the procedure. Dr. ElAttrache is the same surgeon who performed an ACL replacement on McGregor’s knee back in 2013 after he tore the ligament during a win against Max Holloway.
As the head team physician for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Rams, Dr. ElAttrache has handled high-profile surgeries for athletes such as Tom Brady. He’s also performed ACL replacement surgery on former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre.
An intramedullary rod was inserted in the tibia with screws and plates attached to the fibula to stabilize McGregor’s leg. The news of the surgery was first reported by TMZ.
Afterward, McGregor released a statement with an update on his condition. He’s expected to stay in the hospital for a couple of days before he’s allowed to return home to Ireland.
“Just out of the surgery room guys!” McGregor wrote on Twitter. “Surgery went excellent! Feeling tremendous! [Six] weeks on crutch and we build back! Let’s go! God bless.”
Just out of the surgery room guys! Surgery went excellent! Feeling tremendous! 6 weeks on crutch and we build back! Let’s go! God bless
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 12, 2021
McGregor then released a video where he called the surgery “perfect” while also addressing Poirier for the first time after leaving the octagon on Saturday night.
“Dustin, you can celebrate that illegitimate win all you want but you done nothing in there,” McGregor said. “That second round would have shown all. Onwards and upwards we go team. We dust ourselves off, we build ourselves back and we come back better than ever.”
McGregor’s broken leg comes less than four months after former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman suffered a similar injury in his fight against Uriah Hall. While it was obviously a devastating injury, Weidman recently was able to return to the gym to hit pads again for the first time just seven weeks after his own surgery.
McGregor’s manager Audie Attar also issued a statement about the surgery and his expected recovery from the injury.
“Conor is in recovery after three hours of surgery,” Attar wrote. “The surgery was successful repairing fractures of his tibia and fibula. His physicians included Dr. Neal ElAttrache from Kerlan-Jobb, Conor’s long time orthopedist and trauma surgeon Dr. Milton Little from Cedars-Sinai.
“Both doctors are confident that with time he will make a full recovery. We anticipate his return to the octagon.”