Conor McGregor's freak knee injury that threatened to end his fighting career is on the mend and the UFC star could return to action next year, revealed his coach. 

John Kavanagh, who has been the mastermind behind much of his fellow Irishman's success over 22 years, has given an update on the 38-year-old's recovery, while shutting down conspiracy theories. 

McGregor's highly-anticipated comeback in July ended in immediate disaster when he tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee with the very first move of the fight. 

Kavanagh has now revealed that he'd watched the 'Notorious' perform the same pre-planned opening kick more than 50 times in sparring over six months to great effect. 

Conspiracy theorists claimed McGregor must have had a pre-existing issue or entered the fight already compromised against Max Holloway. 

It was McGregor's first fight in five years since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier and another excruciating and complicated injury led some to believe his fighting career is all-but over. 

But Kavanagh, speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, said: 'He says he does (want to fight again). I guess it’ll be next year before he can start returning to, obviously, you know, MMA-type training. 

'He’s going through his rehab now. And he’s back. He looks pretty good to me. He looks to be moving around quite well. So he’s been very aggressive with his therapy and his recovery. 

'And then I guess we wait to see what happens next year. Who knows, maybe I am back talking to you next summer. I just don't know if he's done with competition just yet.'

And on the knee injury itself, Kavanagh explained the training camp had been six months long, no stone was left unturned and McGregor entered the Holloway bout fully fit. 

'For the conspiracy theorists out there, he walked in with no injury,' he added. 'Zero injury. There was absolutely no injury. 

'I can guarantee you that he was 100% going in. In fact, probably more healthy going into this one than the last few.'

On the kick that went so badly wrong, he said: 'If I hadn't seen it done, like I don't want to exaggerate, but at least 50 times in the months leading up to it, at least 50 different sparring sessions and done every time he started pad sessions— like it was just something he had just done to death.

'I didn't know what had happened. I wasn't sure it was a slip or what had gone on, but it was obvious when he stood up that there was something had gone terribly wrong.'

McGregor still has one fight remaining on his UFC contract, after which he would be free to pursue other opportunities, perhaps in the boxing ring. 

On Tuesday, Conor Benn called out McGregor for a potential crossover fight, just weeks after suffering a devastating defeat by Ryan Garcia.

Benn took to social media to share a fight poster featuring himself and McGregor, accompanied by the caption: 'Benn vs McGregor coming soon, 2027'.

He added to the speculation by responding: 'Any day of the week.'

The UFC allowed McGregor to fight Floyd Mayweather in one of the most lucrative bouts in history back in 2017 but Dana White has repeatedly insisted it was a one-off event and he will not allow MMA stars under contract to pursue those opportunities.