Ricky Williams will serve a four game suspension beginning next month and then be reinstated with the Miami Dolphins by the NFL, according to his lawyer.

But the league says an agreement has not been finalized.

“I am pleased with the National Football League’s proposal,” attorney David Cornwell said yesterday. “I think Ricky will be pleased, too.”

Williams must approve the deal, which would move him from the retired list to the suspended list for the final four games of the schedule. The running back is required to serve a four game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

After that, his contract with the Dolphins would be in force.

“Anything regarding Ricky’s status is a league matter,” Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene said.

“No agreement has been reached at this time,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, adding the league and Williams’s representatives have been in discussions “for some time.”

Williams, 27, retired during the summer, giving up the $5 million he would have earned this season, which would have been his sixth in the NFL, amid reports he faced the suspension for substance abuse. Williams is now about a month into a 17-month course at the California College of Ayurveda in Grass Valley, Calif., studying holistic medicine.

The Dolphins’ season pretty much was ruined by Williams’s sudden retirement. The star runner was the focal point of Miami’s offense and the Dolphins, also ravaged by injuries, are 1-9 without him. They will have their first losing season since 1988 and Dave Wannstedt resigned as coach earlier this month.

The team filed a lawsuit last month in federal court against Williams after an arbitrator ruled he owes the team more than $8.6 million for breaching his contract.

Williams rushed for 3,225 yards in two seasons with the Dolphins, including a league-leading 1,853 yards in 2002. They acquired the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner in a trade with New Orleans after the 2001 season.

Throughout his career, Williams has been plagued by strange behavior, including conducting interviews with his helmet on when he was with the Saints. He suffers from social-anxiety disorder and was a spokesman for an anti-depressant. He said marijuana helped him once he had to stop using the antidepressant because it didn’t agree with his diet.

Williams found laughable reports he retired because he wanted to continue smoking marijuana.