{"id":756603,"date":"2026-06-24T05:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756603\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T05:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:47:34","slug":"mlb-clears-dodgers-dr-neal-elattrache-after-link-to-conor-mcgregor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756603\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB clears Dodgers Dr. Neal ElAttrache after link to Conor McGregor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Major League Baseball says it has no concerns about Dodgers<\/a> and Rams<\/a> head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache<\/a> working with players.<\/p>\n

ElAttrache was questioned by MLB on June 12 following a detailed report by the New York Times<\/a> that the renowned surgeon and sports medicine expert supported the therapeutic use of performance-enhancing drugs by UFC star Conor McGregor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMLB took our responsibility to conduct due diligence in this matter seriously. We interviewed Dr. Neal ElAttrache last week, covering multiple topics, and he answered our questions thoroughly,\u201d MLB said in a statement obtained by The Times Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on our interview, the review of relevant records, Dr. ElAttrache\u2019s long history of support for and cooperation with the Joint Drug Program and the fact that no Therapeutic Use Exemption requests of this nature have been submitted by Dr. ElAttrache or anyone else, we do not have any concerns regarding Dr. ElAttrache\u2019s treatment of MLB players, or his adherence to the Joint Drug Programs and related rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consider this matter closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

ElAttrache performed surgery on McGregor in July 2021, inserting a rod, plates and screws into his left leg after the fighter broke his tibia and fibula during a mixed martial arts bout against Dustin Poirier in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

McGregor\u2019s recovery was lengthy and arduous. ElAttrache told the New York Times that while he did not prescribe steroids for McGregor, he referred him to a specialist who did. Furthermore, ElAttrache wrote a letter supporting McGregor\u2019s request for a therapeutic use exemption from UFC drug policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt it would be appropriate to consult other physicians with expertise in bone healing\/bone metabolism,\u201d ElAttrache told the New York Times via text. \u201cI recommended the consultations but not the course of treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

ElAttrache said he told McGregor to check with UFC drug testers about prescriptions the consultant gave him. \u201cI purposely wasn\u2019t involved with his evaluation by the consultant nor with prescribing medication,\u201d ElAttrache said.<\/p>\n

The exemption request was denied by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the drug testing organization the UFC used at the time, triggering a split between the two organizations. McGregor withdrew from the UFC anti-doping program shortly thereafter and no longer was required to undergo testing for banned substances.<\/p>\n

The report prompted MLB to talk with ElAttrache about his approach to treating players.<\/p>\n

ElAttrache, operating primarily out of the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic<\/a> in Los Angeles, has performed elbow or shoulder surgeries on prominent Dodgers past and present, including Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin and Walker Buehler as well as former Rams stars Cooper Kupp and Cam Akers.<\/p>\n

Among the hundreds of surgeries performed over three decades by ElAttrache, his patients include<\/a> the four 2024 MLB most valuable player and Cy Young Award winners \u2014 Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal. ElAttrache\u2019s patients include 18 of 29 players who won the MVP or Cy Young awards over the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have spoken with MLB and I am very comfortable with the process that the league and I will complete to assure the public that I have followed every rule and regulation in my medical treatment of athletes without exception,\u201d ElAttrache said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times earlier this month<\/a>. \u201cMy record is completely clean, including in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times staff writers Steve Henson, Bill Shaikin, Sam Farmer and Gary Klein contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball says it has no concerns about Dodgers and Rams head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,263385,362032,362030,362029,362033,10213,14852,591,8374,15624,172176,5149,85,1369,362031,2284],"class_list":["post-756603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cy-young-award-winner","tag-detailed-report","tag-dodgers-dr-neal-elattrache","tag-elattrache","tag-joint-drug-program","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-mcgregor","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-times","tag-player","tag-request","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-surgery","tag-therapeutic-use","tag-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}