Tony La Russa, who was hoping to lead the Chicago White Sox to the World Series, instead is expected to announce his retirement Monday at a news conference in Chicago.

La Russa, who turns 78 on Tuesday, certainly gave it everything he had, but his heart gave out.

He planned on returning to fulfill his contract in 2023, but was in his office on Aug. 29 when he received a telephone call from his doctors. He was instructed to leave the ballpark immediately, go home, and come in the next day for testing. He was on a flight the next day back to Arizona and underwent a procedure to repair his pacemaker.

La Russa, feeling much stronger, still planned to return as manager. He flew to Oakland on Sept. 10 to attend Dave Stewart’s jersey retirement ceremony, spent time visiting with his team, and felt refreshed. He flew back on the team plane to Chicago, and watched the White Sox’s next two home games from owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s suite.

It was the last time he was with his team.

La Russa returned to Arizona and underwent more testing, and there were further procedures. The doctors sat him down and provided their expert medical opinion: He should not manage again.

Not only this season.

But ever again.

La Russa listened, and will walk away. He likely will stay in the White Sox organization as a special assistant, but those long, demanding and stressful days are over.

This is not the way he envisioned his career to end.

Tony La Russa walked through the visitors’ clubhouse, shaking hands with his players. It was the first time with them since he was abruptly told by doctors not to manage the White Sox before a game Aug. 30 against the Royals at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“I had [a heart] issue in spring training, so they had some information they needed to address, and it was serious enough to where [they said], ‘Get out of uniform; you can’t watch the game,’ ’’ La Russa said.

The Sox lost that night but since then have enjoyed their best stretch of the season. With bench coach Miguel Cairo as skipper, they’re 9-4, including the 10-3 loss Sunday. La Russa had a pacemaker inserted, it was revealed Sunday, and was cleared by doctors to attend Dave Stewart’s number-retirement ceremony and to fly to Chicago with the team Sunday night.

But he hasn’t received the OK to manage.

“Health is nothing to mess with,” said La Russa, who turns 78 in October.

“They fixed it; now it’s a question of regaining strength. So don’t mess with health. I’m mending.”

If and when La Russa returns to managing “will depend on the experts,” he said.

“Reading the situation, they ask me how I feel because I do a little more, and how you respond to a little more affects it, so I think it’s uncertain,” he said.

La Russa said “don’t mess with health,” but he often says “don’t mess with the baseball gods” and trends and jinxes and knows the team has played well in his absence.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa is out indefinitely as he undergoes medical tests in Arizona, according to the team on Wednesday.

La Russa, 77, missed Tuesday night’s game against the Kansas City Royals after participating in regular pregame activities. Within an hour of first pitch, doctors advised him not to manage.

“We were trying to figure out what was going on,” outfielder Andrew Vaughn said. “They mentioned a few things, maybe his heart, or something like that.”

Bench coach Miguel Cairo will continue to manage until La Russa returns. He was at the helm for Tuesday’s 9-7 loss to the Royals, Chicago’s fifth consecutive defeat.

Cairo indicated that there was no incident after pregame which prevented La Russa from managing. Instead, it was La Russa’s doctors who reached out and told him to stand down.

And now … did he listen to a fan in the stands to tell him to put in a pinch runner in the eighth inning on Monday night?

Here’s the situation: With the White Sox and Houston Astros tied 2-2 after a Eloy Jimenez double, video shows a fan in the stands near the Chicago dugout yelling at La Russa to put in Adam Engel as a pinch-runner, which would make sense given Engel’s speed.

Suddenly, there’s La Russa making THAT EXACT MOVE.

Now: This could be coincidence. Maybe La Russa was considering that very move.

Or … WHOA.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf always told folks his greatest regret was firing Tony La Russa back in the ’80s, understandable since La Russa wound up winning three World Series, getting to six, and carving out a Hall of Fame managing career in Oakland and St. Louis.

But the way things are going on Chicago’s South Side, Reinsdorf’s second greatest regret may become not firing La Russa a second time.

(Reinsdorf said through a spokesman he isn’t planning on commenting on La Russa or the team at this time.)

The White Sox owner remains the most famously loyal team owner in sports, and the suspicion for now is he will stick with La Russa. Normal circumstances dictate some breaking point, but this is about two lifelong friends who are uber successful and equally headstrong, so who knows?

Warning to Sox fans: Sources say La Russa’s deal, at about $3.75 million annually, extends into next season, too.

The South Side faithful have begun to chant “Fire Tony,” a catchy shorthand request. But beyond the fact that that’s our job, a more dignified sendoff is probably in order for arguably the greatest manager over the past half century. While he’s related well to players at 77, his in-game decisions are growing bizarre. And at some point, reasonably, it must be stopped.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa said that while Max Muncy did break open the game with a three-run homer in the sixth inning after he ordered an intentional walk to Trea Turner with a 1-2 count in Chicago’s 11-9 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, he defended the thinking behind the call.

Down 6-5 after Freddie Freeman hit an RBI single in the sixth off left-hander Bennett Sousa, who then bounced an 0-2 slider for a wild pitch that allowed Freeman to take second, La Russa ordered the intentional walk to the right-handed-hitting Turner, who had singled in a run in the fifth.

“He’s got two strikes, Tony!” a fan yelled.

Muncy, whose two-run double off Dylan Cease put the Dodgers ahead 5-4 in the fifth, worked the count to 2-2 and sliced a slider to the opposite field and into the left-field seats, his fourth home run this season.

La Russa said after the game that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

“Is there some question about whether that was good move or not?’’ La Russa, a 77-year-old Hall of Famer, said. “Do you know what [Turner] hits against left-handed pitching with 0-1 or two strikes? Do you know what Muncy hits with two strikes against a left-handed pitcher? Is that really a question? We had an open base and Muncy happened to be the guy behind him and that’s a better matchup.

“Somebody disagrees, that’s the beauty of this game, they’re welcome to it. But that wasn’t a tough call.”

White Sox manager Tony La Russa says he both likes and respects San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler, but disagrees with his form of protest as it relates to the latest mass shooting.

Kapler wrote this week he’ll remain inside the Giants’ clubhouse while the national anthem is being played before games. La Russa believes in the cause just not Kapler’s actions.

“I think he’s exactly right to be concerned ... with what’s happening in our country,” La Russa said before his team hosted the Cubs on Saturday night. “He’s right there. Where I disagree is the flag and the anthem are not appropriate places to try to voice your objections.”

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. Shortly thereafter, Kapler penned an article explaining why he can no longer stand outside while the anthem is being played, writing he’s “not okay with the state of this country.”

“When I was the same age as the children in Uvalde, my father taught me to stand for the pledge of allegiance when I believed my country was representing its people well or to protest and stay seated when it wasn’t,” Kapler wrote. “I don’t believe it is representing us well right now.”

La Russa reiterated his respect for Kapler’s intentions but thinks his form of protesting is disrespectful to servicemen and women.

“Some of their courage comes from what the flag means to them and when they hear the anthem,” La Russa said. “You need to understand what the veterans think when they hear the anthem or see the flag. And the cost they paid and their families. And if you truly understand that, I think it’s impossible not to salute the flag and listen to the anthem.”