HOUSTON -- Hakeem Olajuwon, faced with a serious back injury, has to make a decision within the next month on whether he will play professional basketball again, his agent said Tuesday.

	Olajuwon

Dan Fagan said in an interview with Houston television station KRIV that Olajuwon is out indefinitely with what he said was described by Toronto Raptors team physicians as a serious back injury.

''Hakeem's a warrior, and I think his love for basketball is almost overpowering,'' Fagan said. ''However, he's a realist, and if his back injury is what's been described to us, and we believe it is, the possibility of a retirement due to his injury is something we are going to discuss.''

Fagan said he expects Olajuwon to examine all of his options before making a decision. He said a medical retirement or retirement due to injury is not out of the question.

Toronto general manager Glen Grunwald said Monday he doesn't expect Olajuwon to play this season. Olajuwon is in Houston, where he played 17 years for the Rockets. He has been excused from the Raptors' training camp.

Olajuwon, who led the Rockets to NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, went to the Raptors in August 2001 after turning down a three-year, $13 million contract offer to stay in Houston. He signed a three-year, $18 million contract with Toronto.

Fagan said there wasn't much to say about the contract with the Raptors at this point.

''Basically there's a process when a player has an injury that's potentially career ending and we are just going to see where this takes us,'' he said.