NEW YORK – Carl Pavano was scratched from a scheduled rehabilitation start Wednesday, and New York Yankees manager Joe Torre isn’t counting on having the oft-injured pitcher return to the major leagues this year.

The decision was made Tuesday, a day after a scan revealed Pavano broke two ribs in an Aug. 15 car crash he didn’t disclose to the team until after he made three minor league starts.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman wouldn’t rule out disciplinary action but said his investigation might take several weeks.

“I’m sure we’ll see him sooner or later, but I don’t think we can count on him for this year,” Torre said before the Yankees’ game against Detroit was rained out.

“I’m not going to sit here and wonder when he’s going to pitch, because we’ve got work to do at this point. We were sort of penciling him in and trying to figure out where he would fit.”

Pavano was examined Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, and the Yankees decided to bring him to New York and have team physician Dr. Stuart Hershon conduct tests Wednesday.

“The right choice right now is just to make sure that he has a full physical evaluation based on the knowledge that he was in a car accident, to the severity we don’t know, really,” Cashman said. “We just have to make sure we rule everything out before we schedule him for his next start.”

Pavano, in the second season of a $39.95 million, four-year contract, hasn’t played in the major leagues since June 27, 2005, due to shoulder, back, buttocks and elbow injuries.

He had been slated to start Wednesday for Triple-A Columbus at Durham.

“Every time we think we have something solved, something else pops up,” Torre said. “You sort of shake your head.”

Pavano went 4-6 with a 4.77 ERA in 17 major league starts last year before going on the disabled list.

“I have to assume he wants to pitch,” Torre said. “I would not believe that someone who’s gotten that far in his career and really got to the point where he was our No. 1 choice a couple of years ago, all of a sudden he decides he doesn’t want to pitch. I don’t believe that.”

Pavano crashed his 2006 Porsche into a tractor trailer in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 15, causing $30,000 in damages to his car, according to a West Palm Beach police report.

Pavano’s car hydroplaned, he lost control and the vehicle struck a tractor trailer, the report states.

“It was a significant accident,” West Palm Beach police Lt. Chuck Reed said.

Pavano, who was driving the Porsche, was at fault, according to the police report, which does not indicate whether any charges were filed or tickets issued. Reed said there is no record of Pavano receiving a ticket.

Damages to the truck, which belongs to the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County, were estimated at $20,000 in the report.

“We should have been told about it,” Torre said. “You certainly endanger yourself and the commitment to us when you take chances like he seems to have taken.”