Major League Baseball has cleared the Los Angeles Dodgers team physician, Neal ElAttrache, of any wrongdoing in the wake of the disclosure earlier this month that he supported the use of performance-enhancing drugs by the U.F.C. star Conor McGregor to heal a badly broken leg.
In a written statement on Tuesday, Major League Baseball’s commissioner’s office said its investigators had questioned Dr. ElAttrache about the matter last week and that he had “answered our questions thoroughly.”
The commissioner’s office said that based on the interview, along with a review of its records, “we do not have any concerns regarding Dr. ElAttrache’s treatment of M.L.B. players, or his adherence to” the sport’s antidoping program.
“We consider this matter closed,” the commissioner’s office said.
Dr. ElAttrache did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to his role with the Dodgers, winners of the last two World Series, Dr. ElAttrache is the top doctor for the Los Angeles Rams and is considered one of the most prominent physicians in all of sports. Of the 29 baseball players who have won the Cy Young or Most Valuable Player Awards in the past 10 years, Dr. ElAttrache has operated on, treated or examined 18 of them, including Bryce Harper and Shohei Ohtani.
The quick decision to clear Dr. ElAttrache of any wrongdoing comes less than two weeks after The New York Times reported that when McGregor gruesomely broke his leg at a match in 2021, Dr. ElAttrache wrote a letter supporting a special exemption that would have allowed McGregor to use banned drugs without facing a penalty.
Antidoping officials overseeing the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s drug testing program at the time believed that McGregor, in seeking the exemption, was attempting — with the doctor’s backing — to exploit a loophole to use banned drugs.
Sports doctors, antidoping experts, sports officials and trauma surgeons interviewed by The Times said they knew of no similar exemption that had ever been granted and said they were surprised to hear that Dr. ElAttrache had endorsed something antidoping officials would almost certainly question.
In response to the story, Major League Baseball signaled it would look into the matter to understand why Dr. ElAttrache had backed the decision to seek the exemption and to make sure he had never supported the use of banned drugs by baseball players.
“M.L.B. took our responsibility to conduct due diligence in this matter seriously,” the commissioner’s office said on Tuesday.
The National Football League has declined to answer questions about whether it will investigate Dr. ElAttrache.
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