Conor McGregor could return from his broken leg as a middleweight, coach John Kavanagh has joked.

The Notorious has been out of action since he broke his leg against Dustin Poirer at UFC 264 in July.

McGregor is on the comeback trail

Irishman McGregor has repeatedly posted images of himself training on his upper body as he gets himself ready for his eventual return.

He has also been vocal about his possible next fight and replying to ESPN journalist Marc Radimondi on Twitter, the Irishman made it clear what he wanted to happen.

McGregor posted: "Hi lads, here goes.. clicks and the like. Your boss and what not. The Mac. Santy Claus."I'm facing whoever the f*** has that LW title next. Deal with it.

With current champion Charles Oliveira taking on Poirer on December 11 at UFC 269, his next target will be known imminently.

'The Notorious' has seriously packed on the pounds in the gym

But coach John Kavanagh joked his training might see him move up weights.

He told Submission Radio: "He is coming back to Ireland and will be back on the mats with me in the next couple of weeks.

"He is doing a lot of strength training at the moment, the guy is jacked I think he will be coming back as a middleweight!

"But we will start off with combat sports training again and drills, I joked to him and said we should start off with techniques but he said he wanted to come back with five-by-five.

"He is enthusiastic, excited and upbeat to come back in 2022 and although I am not sure when he will come back I know he will be back."

Poirier will challenge for the UFC title on December 18 against Oliveira after defeating McGregor

And Kavanagh is targeting improvements as he gets set to train with McGregor again.

He added: "It's always interesting facing the same opponent because techniques may change but the tendencies remain the same so what we've been working on, we'll continue working on.

"You make adjustments each time and you're trying to improve and opponents can change.

"As long as the focus is on, like I'd always say to Conor and all my guys, the goal is that if you're doing a three-month training block is that at the end of the three months you could beat your former self. That's really all you can do is to try to improve yourself."