Conor McGregor has responded to a recent report alleging that he used banned substances during his recovery from the devastating leg injury he suffered at UFC 264.

Last week, the New York Times reported that McGregor sought permission in 2021 to use banned recovery drugs while rehabilitating the broken leg he suffered against Dustin Poirier.
According to the report, McGregor’s surgeon supported the request, but it was ultimately denied by the UFC’s anti-doping partner at the time, USADA.

The report also stated that McGregor later removed himself from the testing pool in order to focus on his recovery before eventually re-entering ahead of his planned return against Michael Chandler.

Speaking with Yahoo Sports, McGregor expressed frustration that details surrounding his medical treatment had become public:

Shocking! Shocking! A man’s private medical, from the most devastating injury that you’ll see in combat sports. The whole thing is strange to me.

You have an injury like that, you’re not going to walk again!

The objective should be to get that athlete, that fighter, who has given his life, his limb, his livelihood for the entertainment of the people and for the profit of the company, it should be: “Get this man back on his feet.”

McGregor clarified that his criticism was not directed at the UFC itself but rather at the anti-doping system that existed at the time:

Not with the UFC, but with the former body that was there prior. And I find that strange, and I find that wrong. All I cared about was, I’m airlifted out of this f*cking arena, with my leg hanging off, how am I going to walk again?

So the fact that five years after the fact, I find it strange, to be honest. And I feel the game should change to accommodate a situation like that.
If a doctor is prescribing certain medications and certain things to come back, otherwise you’re not going to walk again?

There’s a chance, there’s like a 20 percent chance that that leg doesn’t join together again. It’s called a non-union, where the bone doesn’t join.
You’re left on a wobble forever. That’s what’s at stake here!

F*ck this fighting game, are you crazy?! I have children to raise and play with. So, I was a bit shocked that that was the case.

McGregor went on to say that he followed medical advice throughout the recovery process and did not concern himself with the specifics of every treatment he received:

But, whatever. I took myself out of the pool, listened to my doctors, didn’t ask questions. I don’t even know.
If you’re going to ask what was I on, I don’t even know. I don’t want to know.

All I want to know is, what’s going to get me back to my f*cking feet to be able to play with my children in a normal capacity again? And that was it.

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