Doc On McGregor Pinky Break: ‘It’s A Good One’

Sports medicine doctor Brian Sutterer examines the x-ray of Conor McGregor’s broken toe and gives his estimate of when the Irish sports star will return.

Conor McGregor has revealed the injury that forced him off of UFC 303, and fans are not impressed.

McGregor shared (and then deleted) an x-ray of his broken pinky toe and a regular shot of the bruised digit on social media. The x-ray shows a clear fracture running across the entire pinky, which seems kind of severe. But what do we know? We’re not podiatrists. Rather than speculate as if we were, let’s turn instead to Dr. Brian Sutterer, who is a sports medicine specialist.

In a new video on YouTube, Sutterer takes a close look at the x-ray and shares his diagnosis.

“That fracture line goes obliquely through the shaft of that proximal phalanx of the pinky toe, and there is a little bit of displacement,” he said. “It’s very rare to need a surgery for an isolated lesser toe fracture, and I do not suspect that McGregor needed surgery.”

“Was this an injury warranted of McGregor withdrawing? Yeah, I think so,” said Sutterer. “Absolutely. It’s not a fracture that’s going to have that drastic of an effect on your mobility compared to a great toe or a big toe fracture where you’re pushing off and you’re putting a lot more weight through it.”

“But it’s enough of a thing that’s going to affect and throw off your ability to, one, continue your training and keep up your cardio, but then two, feel confident with your footwork, especially when you’re dealing with an athlete who’s coming back from a broken leg. You’re gonna have a lower threshold for being affected by an injury.

“So, yes, it’s a pinky toe,” he said. “I’m sure he’s gonna get all kinds of hate online about withdrawing because of a broken pinky toe. But as pinky toe fractures go, that’s a pretty good one. And again, when you’re coming back at that stage where if you win, you potentially get a title shot. If you lose, you’re kind of spiraling around in this mediocrity level of competition.”

“I would not go into it with any sort of level of compromise in foot,” he concluded. “At this stage, it would not have been healed for the upcoming UFC fight against Chandler, so he would be going into it with a broken toe. And it doesn’t matter with the result if there was a toe fracture or not. It could certainly have affected his performance and certainly affected the rest of his tenure and general trajectory in the UFC. So I think it was appropriate to withdraw.”

On the plus side, Sutterer estimated a four to eight week recovery time for the injury, backing up reports that McGregor would be able to fight again relatively soon (if he ever fights again!)

McGregor has a history of fighting through some gnarly injuries in order to stay on cards, so fans are taking this decision extra hard. It doesn’t help that the fighter replacing him in the main event, Alex Pereira, accepted a fight with two broken toes. But Pereira isn’t coming off a horrific clean break of the fibula and tibia, so there’s that to consider as well.

What do you think, Maniacs? Do you agree with Dr. Sutterer’s prognosis or do we want a second opinion? Let us know in the comments below.