Conor McGregor was in line to return to the UFC in December, his head coach John Kavanagh has revealed.
The former two-division champion hasn’t set foot inside the Octagon since losing his UFC 229 grudge match with Khabib Nurmagomedov last October.
McGregor was in negotiations to return to action in July, but a hand injury scuppered plans for him to face Justin Gaethje at Madison Square Garden.
Over the last few weeks, the Irishman has teased an end-of-year return, which was repeatedly been ruled out by UFC president Dana White.
And according to Kavanagh, a fight on the UFC 245 card – the promotion’s final pay-per-view event of 2019 – was in the works.
“We were close to [a]December [matchup],” the SBG Ireland head coach told WHOATV. “I thought that’s what it was going to be.
“And then that card filled up with three titles fights so it wasn’t going to happen.”
At this moment in time, White expects Ireland’s first UFC champion to fight at the ‘beginning of next year’.
Kavanagh agrees with that timeline and admits the 31-year-old is looking to fight shortly after the turn of the New Year.
He added: “Now we’re looking at the first quarter of 2020.
“I can’t get any more specific than that because I don’t know myself.”
Despite the uncertainty surrounding his UFC future, McGregor has been hard at work in the gym.
And his SBG Ireland team-mate John Phillips believes it won’t be too long before we see ‘The Notorious’ back inside the cage.
“I don’t really know,” Phillips told Express Sport when asked if he thinks McGregor is gearing up for a fight. “Obviously when I was over there, Conor wasn’t really there that much.
“But it’s a part of Conor’s life to always train. So he’d train regardless if he’s got a fight or not. Only Conor knows [when he’ll be back]. But I’m sure he’ll be back in action pretty soon.
“God knows when [he’ll fight]. The only person that can answer that is Conor.”