Conor McGregor handed medical suspension until 2022 after UFC 264 leg break

UFC star Conor McGregor has been handed a medical suspension which will rule him out of action until 2022, after suffering a horror leg break in his trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in Las Vegas on Saturday.

The Irishman lost the bad-blooded bout via a doctor stoppage following the incident which occurred at the end of the first round.

Immediately rushed to hospital, McGregor insisted he felt "tremendous" after undergoing surgery on Monday for a broken tibia and fibula, in an uploaded video posted on his Twitter account.

"Just out of the surgery room, everything went to plan, everything went perfect and I'm feeling tremendous," he began.

"We've got six weeks on a crutch now and then we begin to build back."

Yet even if the July 14 birthday boy is fit to start training within the time frame specified, the medical suspension he has received, as reported on mixedmartialarts.com, means he cannot return to the UFC until January 7 - unless he receives orthopedic clearance beforehand.

And in the grand scheme of things, this doesn't change much as per McGregor's quest to become lightweight champion once more, and can even work to his advantage.

Poirier's latest victory means that 'The Diamond' is certain to face the division's ruler Charles Oliveira later this year.

If the Louisiana native is victorious, McGregor could immediately be in line for a title shot with president Dana White refusing to rule out a fourth meeting between the two despite McGregor's poor 3-4 record in recent years.

"It sucks," White said post-fight, of how their last encounter ended. 

"It’s brutal. It’s not the way you want to see fights end. Dustin Poirier will fight for the title, and when Conor is healed and ready to go, you do the rematch, I guess. I don’t know."

"The fight didn’t get finished," White added.

"You can’t have a fight finish that way, so we’ll see how this whole thing plays out. Who knows how long Conor is out, so Poirier will do his thing until Conor’s ready."

Given McGregor's continued death threats towards him and insults to his wife Jolie, Poirier wants to settle the score for once and for all too.

"No, we are going to fight again whether it's in the octagon or on the sidewalk," he told reporters. 

"He was saying he was going to kill me. You don’t say stuff like that, that he was going to murder me. You don’t say stuff about people’s wives either, but I know [there's] zero chance [of that].

"But there is a chance someone could die and you don’t wish that on anybody,"