QUEBEC CITY -- Olympic skating champion Alexei Yagudin has been ordered to rest for three to six weeks while he attempts to recover from a career-threatening hip injury.

Tatiana Tarasova, Yagudin's coach, said Friday doctors in New York have told the skater to rest before they re-evaluate him. The Russian has said his ailment is a degenerative condition from birth.

''I don't know what's next,'' Tarasova said. ''Three to six weeks, (then) we don't know.''

She said she hopes to start training with Yagudin immediately after the rest period.

According to his agent, Yagudin is awaiting results Monday of one more medical test before deciding what to do.

"He can walk. He cannot skate," said Yagudin's agent, Dimitri Goryachkin, from his office in New York City.

Asked whether the two New York specialists Yagudin consulted this week offered hope they could help him, Goryachkin said, "They see there is a problem, but even if there are different problems there are different ways of treating the problem and, in that way, they (the doctors) are hopeful."

A third doctor in Boston has promised his advice Monday.

"It's tough on Alexei. To be 22 years old and feel that you could not do what you do best, in the prime of his career, it would be tough on anybody," Goryachkin said.

"If you are a professional athlete and somebody is saying there is a health problem that could affect your career, it affects you in many, many ways," he added.

Yagudin was leading after the short program when pulled out of Skate America last week. He said the pain in his right hip made it impossible to continue.

An emotional Yagudin admitted the injury could force him to retire.

He withdrew from Skate Canada on Thursday.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.