Royals Cite Hip Injury, Cut Jackson : Pro sports: Team doctor says the player asked him not to reveal February test results to the club’s management.

Bo Jackson, the year-round wonder who took sport to new heights with a quest to test the boundaries of his athletic gifts, was released Monday by the Kansas City Royals after the team concluded his hip injury would force him to miss the 1991 baseball season.

His future with the Raiders, for whom he was playing when injured, also remains uncertain, although both Jackson and an examining physician are predicting his return to sports.

Raider owner Al Davis also is optimistic.

“Bo will get well,” Davis said from Hawaii, where he is attending NFL owners’ meetings. “He’ll be back with the Raiders.”

Next year?

“Sure,” Davis said. “We’ve had several players who’ve had that injury. There’s one playing in the league right now.”

Davis declined to identify the player.

The Royals’ decision to cut Jackson was made three days after the hip was examined in Kansas City by team physician Steven Joyce, who said Jackson suffers from a fractured dislocation of the left hip and cartilage damage in the hip socket.

Joyce told the Associated Press that Jackson had asked him not to tell the Royals about the severity of the injury after an examination in February, shortly before an arbitration hearing. Jackson later signed the new contract.

“I did examine Bo prior to the arbitration hearing, and I did inform the Royals’ trainer,” Joyce said. “But Bo did ask me not to speak to Royals’ management. It was a balancing act between being realistic with the Royals and being positive with the patient.”

Jackson, 28, was injured Jan. 13 at the end of a 34-yard run in the Raiders’ 20-10 playoff victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at the Coliseum.

The Royals will put Jackson on waivers this morning, and he may be claimed by any other team for $1 until Friday at 11 a.m. PST.

The Royals acknowledged that the decision was based at least in part on financial considerations. By cutting Jackson loose before opening day, the Royals are required to pay only one-sixth of his 1991 salary of $2.375 million.

“We felt this was the cleanest manner in which to handle this and was probably the most equitable to all involved,” Kansas City General Manager Herk Robinson said during a news conference at the Royals’ training complex in Haines City, Fla. “We got nearly $2.5 million involved in a situation like this . . . finances do enter into a situation like this.”

Robinson said the decision was made after careful consideration.

“This action is taken with deep regret,” he said. “The entire Royals organization is deeply appreciative to Bo for his contributions to the club. We wish him and his family the very best of health and success.”

A spokesman for the Major League Baseball Players Assn. said the union will examine the terms by which Jackson was released. Ordinarily, a player may not be released while injured, but the Royals are considering Jackson’s injury football-related.

“There certainly is a basis under which Bo may be entitled to his full salary, but I want to see the medical reports first,” said Gene Orza, the union’s assistant general counsel. Orza added the Royals may have “assumed risk” when they signed Jackson while he remained on crutches as a result of his injury.

Also, with the off-season signing of former Dodger Kirk Gibson and the emergence of center fielder Brian McRae, the Royals are suddenly flush with outfielders and designated hitters, perhaps making Jackson more expendable.

Joyce said he believes strongly that Jackson should not attempt to play baseball this season.

Jackson was examined Monday in Birmingham, Ala., by orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, who determined the hip injury to be significant but not career-ending.

“Bo’s a unique individual who has overcome adversity in the past,” Andrews said. Because of his positive attitude, the doctor added, it is likely that “Bo will be able to return to professional sports in the future.”

Neither Joyce nor Andrews would confirm or deny that Jackson is suffering from a degenerative condition known as avascular necrosis, as one published report speculated last week.

“There has been no collapse of his hip joint,” Andrews said. “That’s the reason we’re putting him on crutches. . . . We’re in a protective phase at this point.”

But Joyce did acknowledge that the injury was more serious than first diagnosed.

“There is evidence of an interruption of the blood supply to the ball (of the hip),” Joyce said. “As the hip is forced out of the socket, the blood vessels can tear. That’s presumably what happened. It’s still in the very early stages. That’s why the prognosis is so uncertain.”

Joyce said in a worst-case scenario, Jackson’s condition might require a hip replacement.

Jackson, emerging from his examination in Birmingham, said, “Don’t count me out. . . . I know deep down I’ll be back playing baseball this year.”

But not for the Royals.

Jackson has a year remaining on a five-year, $7.4-million contract with the Raiders. He is due to earn $1.6 million in 1991, but only $416,000 of that is guaranteed.

The Raider medical staff has distanced itself from the story, referring all medical questions to the Royals. The Raiders conducted an extensive series of tests on Jackson after the injury, including the highly comprehensive magnetic resonance imaging procedure. But the team never revealed publicly the extent of Jackson’s injury. The Raiders did not want to tip their hand before the AFC title game against Buffalo. The team listed Jackson as “doubtful” rather than “out” in its weekly injury report to the NFL office.

The team’s physician, Robert Rosenfeld, told a few reporters the Wednesday before the game that Jackson actually had no chance of playing. He reportedly was reprimanded by Davis the next day for his statements.

Jackson was not in uniform for the 51-3 loss that ended the Raider season.

There are many who thought Jackson was pushing his luck in playing two sports. Although he has been spectacular at times in both sports--he is the only athlete ever to make an all-star team in baseball and the Pro Bowl in football--his career has also been marred by injuries.

In 1990, Jackson batted a career high .272, with 28 home runs and 78 runs batted in, but he played in only 111 games, spending 21 days on the disabled list because of a shoulder injury. Jackson also spent time on the disabled list in 1988 and ’89.

He missed about half his junior football season at Auburn in 1984 because of a shoulder injury. In 1985, the year Jackson won the Heisman Trophy, he suffered a deep thigh bruise that sidelined him for the second half of a crucial Southeastern Conference game against Florida, which came from behind to beat Auburn, 14-10.

His career with the Raiders has been marked by similar bursts of brilliance and bouts with pain. Yet Jackson annually took only 10 days off after baseball season ended before joining the Raiders in mid-season, a pattern that some predicted would fell him some day.

Jackson’s luck might have run out last Jan. 13 on the Coliseum floor, after a typically brilliant, 34-yard run against the Bengals. He was dragged down on a twisting tackle by linebacker Kevin Walker.

Jackson’s left leg locked at the knee and, as his cleats caught hold in the turf, his left hip popped from its socket. He left the field under his own power and later was criticized by some for playing with his children on the bench while his teammates were locked in a fierce fourth-quarter battle with the Bengals.

Perhaps awed by his own talent, Jackson vowed he would return for the AFC championship game against Buffalo the next week. He has not been without crutches since.

Davis, who drafted Jackson with a seventh-round choice on the chance he might play two sports, does not accept Kansas City’s decision that Jackson’s career might be over.

“I don’t know what motivated their decision,” Davis said. “I’ve talked with Bo, and I’ll get a report from them (the Kansas City doctors), but I don’t know why they did what they did.”

Davis said it’s up to Jackson to decide his future.

“We’ll see what the rest of baseball does in the next 72 hours,” Davis said, referring to the league’s waiver process. “I want what Bo wants. If he wants to play both. . . . Let him get well first.”

Times Staff Writers Ross Newhan and Bob Oates contributed to this story.

* THE MOTIVE: The Royals got the chance to ease tension on the team. Ross Newhan. C7

* THE AFTERMATH: Jackson’s commercial appeal might actually become stronger. D1