Carl Pavano was scratched from a scheduled rehabilitation start today, and 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 August 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 yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, and the Yankees decided to bring him to New York and have team physician conduct tests today.

“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 his next start.”