Report: Conor McGregor Took Banned Substances While Recovering From Broken Tibia
Conor McGregor broke his tibia in July 2021 in a fight against Dustin Poirier. The injury has sidelined him for five years, but he is scheduled to return to the Octagon in July 2026 to fight Max Holloway.
In a new report from Michael S Schmidt of the New York Times, it is claimed that McGregor took “powerful, banned drugs” during his recovery process and worked with doctor Neal ElAttrache, who oversaw the surgery on his leg.
The report states, “In response to questions from The Times, ElAttrache said by text that after he had repaired McGregor’s broken leg he sent him to specialists in bone healing and ‘explained that I don’t prescribe hormone or steroid treatment.’ ElAttrache said that after McGregor saw a specialist, he wrote a letter supporting McGregor’s application for a special exemption that would have allowed him to use performance-enhancing drugs without facing a penalty. The exemption was never granted.”
ElAttrache is the head physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Rams.
From The Times:
“In his exchange of texts with The Times, ElAttrache said that after the surgery he was concerned that McGregor’s bones would fuse slowly or not at all.
‘I felt it would be appropriate to consult other physicians with expertise in bone healing/bone metabolism,’ ElAttrache said. ‘I recommended the consultations but not the course of treatment.’
ElAttrache said he had told McGregor he should check with U.F.C.’s drug testers about whatever prescriptions the consultant gave him.
‘I purposely wasn’t involved with his evaluation by the consultant nor with prescribing medication,’ ElAttrache said.
ElAttrache said the ‘expert opinions’ McGregor received had showed ‘he could optimize his chance of solid union and healing of his fractures and decrease the chances that he would be left with incompletely healed fracture lines.'”
McGregor left the USADA testing pool in 2022, and had not been tested since around the time of his July 2021 fight. He re-entered the pool in October 2023 with plans to fight by the end of the year despite needing to be in the testing pool for six months before he was allowed to fight again. The relationship between UFC and USADA ended at the start of 2024.
From The Times:
In a written response to The Times’s questions, McGregor’s manager, Audie Attar, did not say whether McGregor’s had used performance-enhancing drugs. He said that “even with surgery there was a real risk Conor might not walk again, a high likelihood he would face numerous lifelong side effects that would limit his mobility and serious doubts he would ever return to the octagon.”
Attar said McGregor withdrew from the U.F.C.’s drug-testing pool “to focus fully on his recovery” under the care of “his team of world-renowned physicians.”
“They oversaw a combination of a gruesome surgery, intense physical therapy and appropriately prescribed medicines,” Attar said. “It is an unfathomable breach of health and privacy protections that my client’s purported personal medical records would be disclosed.”
McGregor was scheduled to fight in June 2024, but the fight was canceled when he suffered a broken pinkie toe. Drug testers tried to find McGregor to administer an antidoping test but were unable to locate him. In September, McGregor missed two more tests.
