Salt Lake City ? Former Kansas University center Greg Ostertag did not play in Utah’s 89-83 loss to New York in preseason action on Tuesday night.

Ostertag, a 7-foot-2 center, has pain in his abdomen.

It is more than just a lack of conditioning, he said, which has him worried as the season approaches. The Jazz center had been symptom-free following surgery to transplant one of his kidneys into his sister, but that changed about a week ago.

After strenuous workouts, or playing in a preseason game, “I’ve been getting pain, a lot of pain, around where they took my kidney out,” Ostertag said. “Something about my surgery is just not holding up right.”

Ostertag underwent an abdominal scan Monday afternoon, but the Jazz had not learned the results as of Monday night. No matter what the tests show, Ostertag said, the stress of not knowing what is happening has been difficult.

“It’s been very discouraging because I want to play,” he said. “But if it hurts that bad, there’s no way I can play.”

Even if the tests show no lingering problems, Ostertag’s conditioning may cause the Jazz to place the six-year veteran on the disabled list, just to give him time to concentrate on getting into shape. That’s something he hoped to do this month, but the pain has changed those plans.

“I can’t play much at all, and I can hardly practice,” Ostertag said. “It probably will [heal] over time, but right now, I don’t know.”