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MANCHESTER, N.H. -- World Series star Curt Schilling canceled a scheduled campaign appearance with President Bush on Friday.

An e-mailer identifying himself as Schilling posted a message on a fan Web site saying an ankle injury would prevent the Boston Red Sox pitcher from attending.

"I am now not medically cleared to do anything until I see Doc on Sunday, so I cannot travel with President Bush," the message read.

The injury would have prevented Schilling from pitching again in the series, he told the Boston Globe.

"I couldn't have pitched," Schilling told the newspaper. "But the guys would have done it for me."

Schilling, who contributes frequently to online fan forums, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

The pitcher endorsed Bush in a TV interview Thursday, a day after the Red Sox won the franchise's first World Series championship in 86 years.

The e-mail said Schilling should have kept his opinion to himself.

"While I am a Bush supporter, and I did vote for him with an absentee ballot, speaking as I did the other day was wrong. While I hope to see him re-elected, it's not my place, nor the time for me to offer up my political opinions unsolicited," the e-mail read.

Schilling won Game 2 of the World Series and Game 6 of the American League championship series with his ankle stitched to protect a torn sheath around a tendon.

On Thursday, he was at Disney World in Florida for a parade, and he accepted the Bush campaign's invitation to campaign with the Republican incumbent in New Hampshire.

Many of the people lining up Friday morning for Bush's rally said they were more excited to see Schilling than the president. That includes Republican Congressman Jeb Bradley, who was wearing a Red Sox cap and said he hoped Schilling would sign it.

Children carried baseballs in hopes of autographs.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index