SAN ANTONIO — The curtain has come down on what might have been Manu Ginobili's last hurrah on the international stage, even before it began.

The Argentine Basketball Federation (CABB) made the news official Thursday, announcing the Spurs guard had been ruled out of the upcoming FIBA World Cup with a stress fracture in his lower right fibula.

Ginobili, 37, suffered the injury during the Spurs' run to the NBA championship in June, but did not miss any games.

In handing down its ruling, the Argentine body cited a clause in the NBA's agreement with FIBA that bars a player from participating in international events if there is “a reasonable medical concern” for his health.

It is the same clause the Spurs invoked earlier this week, when team officials delivered Ginobili a letter denying him permission to participate in this year's World Cup, which tips off Aug. 30 in Spain.

There was some concern that if Ginobili played with the fracture and it became a full break, the resulting injury could be career-ending.

According to media outlets in Argentina, Ginobili reported pain in the leg after working out with the national team Wednesday, causing the CABB to shut him down.

The Spurs' goal was to avoid a repeat of 2008, when Ginobili played in the Beijing Olympics with an ankle injury that had not fully healed, despite a personal plea from coach Gregg Popovich to skip it.

Ginobili wound up re-aggravating the injury, which required surgery to repair. He was limited to 44 games during the 2008-09 campaign.

Ginobili, who is entering the final season of a contract with the Spurs that will pay him $7 million next season, confirmed he would be sitting out this year's World Cup via his Twitter account Thursday, posting in Spanish that he was “very sorry” and that he “didn't want it to end this way.”

He is expected to make a full recovery in time for the start of Spurs' training camp in October.

From the time Ginobili's latest injury was discovered in a post-Finals examination, Spurs officials were skeptical it would heal in time for the guard to compete in Spain.

Team doctors pegged the recovery time for the stress fracture — which occurred in the same leg as a similar 2009 injury that caused Ginobili to miss all of that season's NBA playoffs — at eight weeks.

“Our expectation is that this is going to line up as the doctors prescribe, which was an eight-week healing process,” Spurs general manager R.C. Buford told a small group of reporters covering NBA Summer League in mid-July. “I don't know that we're going to know anything different until we don't.”

Asked then to assess Ginobili's odds of playing in Spain, Buford said: “That's in the doctor's hands. You guys can do the math.”

Considering his age, many in Argentina believed the World Cup was to be Ginobili's swan song with the national team.

If this really is the end, it is an unceremonious one for the man unanimously regarded as the greatest basketball player in Argentina's history.

Ginobili ascended to Argentina's senior team in 1998, nearly four years before making his NBA debut for the Spurs. Alongside longtime teammates such as Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino, Pablo Prigioni and former Spur Fabricio Oberto, he quickly became the ringleader of Argentina's La Generacion de Oro (“Golden Generation”).

Ginobili cemented his legend 10 years ago this summer, when he led upstart Argentina to Olympic gold in Athens, knocking off Tim Duncan's Team USA along the way.

During the Finals in June, Ginobili reflected on what it has meant to be a part of a pair of championship outfits, both in his home country and in the NBA with the Spurs.

“I feel so incredibly lucky having been part of those two sort of teams,” he said. “It's incredible how lucky I have been. I'm a very, very lucky man.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Staff writer Dan McCarney contributed to this report.