Peoria, Ill. ? Chicago Cubs shortstop Nomar Garciaparra on Tuesday pushed his first rehabilitation outing back a day, preferring to test his surgically repaired groin in consecutive games.

“It’s just another hurdle I’m trying to go over,” Garciaparra said. “Worse case scenario, it could tell me no, you still need time,”

The five-time All-Star was scheduled to start for Class-A Peoria on Tuesday, but decided to wait, Peoria Chiefs’ spokesman Nathan Baliva said.

The game Tuesday was eventually postponed by rain and rescheduled as a doubleheader Wednesday. Garciaparra will play in one of those games and also plans to play Thursday.

“It’s not like it’s a setback,” Garciaparra said of the postponement. “When I was rehabbing, I had days off here and there. It’s an extra day to recover.

“We’re looking at about five to seven innings and one to two at-bats. We’ll see how things progress.”

He will then meet with Chicago Cubs officials Friday to evaluate his rehab.

Garciaparra said he doesn’t want to come back if he can’t play nearly every day.

“That’s not going to help anything – myself, the team or anybody,” he said.

Garciaparra was batting .157 with no home runs and four RBIs in 14 games when he slipped running out of the batters’ box at St. Louis in late April. He had surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his left groin.