Dana White thinks a broken leg will keep Conor McGregor out of the octagon for a year.
The Dubliner fractured his tibia in the closing seconds of the opening round against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in Las Vegas.
He has since undergone surgery in Los Angeles but the 33-year-old faces a long race to recovery.
UFC chief White has said: "I think they just released him right now from the hospital about 10, 15 minutes ago.
"He’ll be in [Los Angeles] for a little while. I don’t know if he’s gonna fly home, or what he’s gonna do."
Asked when the former two-weight world champion will be back, White said: 'He’ll be back in a year."
McGregor took to social media after his surgery and said: "Just out of the surgery room, everything went to plan, everything went perfect and I'm feeling tremendous.
"We've got six weeks on a crutch now and then we begin to build back.
"A clean break of the tibia and it was not to be. Dustin, you can celebrate that illegitimate win all you want but you've done nothing in there. That second round would have shown all."
McGregor's long-time John Kavanagh has revealed that his charge had an ankle problem during his buildup to the fight, which could have contributed to the horror injury.
Kavanagh said: "We’d got a scan on it. Did that have a small part to play in weakening [his ankle]? I don’t know.
"We were with [an orthopaedic surgeon in Los Angeles] a couple of weeks ago to get a scan on the ankle. They say when you look at an MRI or CAT scan, it’s perfect, but they say it’s more like listening to an engine.
"A very skilled mechanic can maybe pick up something, but it’s not until you open up that you see something.
"There might have been something in there. It seems unusual that a young, healthy, fit man can wrap his foot around an elbow without there being something there before. But you can play those sorts of guessing games all day long."
