Mariano Rivera considering retirement, according to report

After the horrifying injury to Mariano Rivera's ACL during batting practice last May in Kansas City, everyone in baseball assumed Rivera would rehab and come back in 2013; Rivera even said several times he didn't want to end his career that way.

Thursday, ESPN New York reported Rivera might be considering retirement anyway:

Now, with his 43rd birthday next month and having worked very hard during his rehab to return, Rivera has the familiar tug that he has carried for many years of possibly wanting to stay home with his family and call it a career. Rivera has yet to inform the Yankees of his final intentions, according to sources.

The article indicates some of the considerations, including Rivera's desire to go out as an elite player and what sort of contract the Yankees would offer him; he earned $15 million in 2012. Manager Joe Girardi didn't sound certain of Rivera's status, either:

"From watching how he rehabbed and everything that he was going through, picked up a baseball sooner than he was supposed to and got his hand smacked a little bit, that would tell me that Mo probably wants to play," Girardi said. "But in saying that, it's a decision that I think he'll sit down with his family, evaluate where he is maybe a little bit later in this process and how he feels and how his arm feels to feel like you think you can compete at the same level he's always competed at. But I don't think that you push a rehab like he pushed it unless you think that you possibly have some interest in coming back."

This story originally appeared on Baseball Nation.