Head coach of SBG Ireland and Conor McGregor, John Kavanagh, confirmed to Laura Sanko that McGregor suffered an ankle injury during camp in the lead-up to his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.
McGregor suffered a snapped tibia in the closing moments of the first round, but as previously stated, Kavanagh said McGregor aggravated his ankle while training for the fight.
“A little bit of that ankle injury had been aggravated during the camp. We’d gotten a scan on it,” Kavanagh said to Sanko. “Did that have a small part to play in weakening it? I don’t know.”
Kavanagh elaborated on McGregor getting a CT scan and said while the injury in camp could have played a role, he is not going to play guessing games.
“Neal ElAttrache, some people will probably know him. Pretty famous orthopedic surgeon here in LA. We were with him a couple of weeks ago to get a scan on the ankle. They say you think when you look at an MRI or a CT scan, it’s perfect. But they say it’s more like listening to an engine, a very skilled mechanic can maybe pick up something off it, but it’s not till you open up and you’ll see it.
“There might have been something in there. It would seem unusual that a young, healthy, fit man can wrap his foot around an elbow without there being something there before. But you know, we can sort of play those guessing games all day long.”
Kavanagh was not remiss in providing credit to Dustin Poirier for his performance, however.
“Unfortunately [McGregor] hit that elbow but, credit to Dustin.”
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