"It's not great" - John Kavanagh raises concern for Conor McGregor’s mental health, says UFC trying to push the Irishman’s comeback to July 2024

John Kavanagh has given some recent insights into the situation Conor McGregor is facing leading up to his discussed return.

The head coach of SBG Ireland appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to discuss how they both were hoping for April in the new year, but the trend seems to be leading to summer 2024.

After Helwani referenced a clip of McGregor at the Ngannou-Fury fight sounding like he's truly yearning to get back to competing, in the context of the host being worried about the Irishman's mental health, Kavanagh said:

"I was too. I'm not going to lie. But hearing him today, he's out there finding this great group of training partners and at least he's doing that. Hey it's not quit the same as getting to compete in front of a large crowd but at least he's getting training in and that's so important. We heard Volk (Alexander Volkanovski) talk about that, you know, keep me busy."

"So I love to hear that he's training hard with these guys. But yeah look and this is what I was saying to him as well, yeah ok, it's a knock back after hearing it was April. But now it's July but it's not the end of the world. It is an extra couple of months, it's not great. But hey, you're enjoying your training at the moment. Let's just keep that going."

Check out Kavanagh discussing the possible summer '24 McGregor return below:

Conor McGregor and his lengthy hiatus

'Conor McGregor next fight' has been a trending search online for seemingly the last two years. The speculation became particularly increased from McGregor's coaching stint opposite Michael Chandler on The Ultimate Fighter, with fans wondering when those two will clash.

The Conor McGregor UFC return will set the industry on fire whenever it happens, but there would be a certain synchronicity to returning three years after his last octagon foray in July 2021.

The former champ fought in a rubber match against Dustin Poirier after being finished by 'The Diamond' in January of that year. McGregor infamously suffered a serious leg injury in the first round of their UFC 264 trilogy affair and has been out of action rehabbing the injury/ navigating an ideal return timeline since.