No one associated with the Raptors is happy about it, but Eric Montross might have to retire this summer.

The whispers in basketball circles have grown louder in the past week or so that Montross, a 7-foot centre and one of the most likable players in the NBA, is edging closer to calling it quits because of his badly injured left foot.

"Very sadly, that's definitely a possibility," Raptors general manager Glen Grunwald said yesterday. "But it's something we'll deal with when the time is right."

Montross, 31, injured his foot in the spring of 2002 when he was stepping over a baby gate at home, and he has not played since.

Countless doctors have been consulted and countless treatments have been tried, but Montross' foot stubbornly refuses to heal. He has been diagnosed as having a stress reaction to a micro-fracture in his talus bone, but there have been differences of opinion even on that basic front among medical personnel.

Montross has two years remaining on his contract, which will pay him $2.96 million US next season and $3.2 million in 2004-05. An insurance policy would help the Raptors pay the remainder of Montross' pact if he retires, as is occurring with another injured Raptors centre, the unofficially but unequivocally retired Hakeem Olajuwon.