FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Curt Schilling's doctor insists the only way the 20-year veteran can pitch again is through surgery on a torn shoulder tendon that resembles strands of pasta.

Boston's team physician disagrees. He believes the tendon is damaged, not torn, and rehabilitation gives Schilling the best chance to play this year.

"The problem has probably been building up for two years, and he just went over the red line," Schilling's physician, Dr. Craig Morgan, said Friday. "Instead of being a single tendon, it's like three pieces of spaghetti or linguine, and when that happens it's end-stage disease in the tendon."

A third doctor, New York Mets medical director David Altchek, agreed that the tendon was torn but said surgery would probably sideline him for the season, Morgan said. Schilling, concerned that the Red Sox would invalidate his $8 million, one-year contract if he chose surgery, then agreed to rehab.

"On our conference call on Wednesday it was their strong recommendation that he go with the conservative approach," Morgan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Friday.

"And, furthermore, it was their strong -- how do I say this? -- they would not approve him having surgery," Morgan said. "Basically, according to the collective bargaining agreement, if they don't approve it, they don't have to pay him. His contract's null and void."

The team declined comment Friday.

Schilling spent seven weeks on the disabled list last year with tendinitis in the shoulder. But he passed the physical exam for the contract he agreed to on Nov. 6. Then, the shoulder deteriorated.