Ronnie O’Sullivan has pulled out of the Welsh Open, with opponent Jamie Clarke receiving a bye to the second round in Llandudno.
The Rocket has not played since the Championship League in January when he withdrew during his group, snapping his cue and admitting he ‘lost the plot’ in the Leicester event.
He then withdrew from the Masters at Alexandra Palace and the German Masters in Berlin.
With his name still in the draw less than 24 hours before he was due to play in Llandudno it was thought that he would return to the table at the Welsh Open but it has been confirmed on Tuesday morning that he has pulled out.
A brief statement from World Snooker Tour read: ‘Ronnie O’Sullivan has pulled out of the BetVictor Welsh Open.
‘O’Sullivan was due to face Jamie Clarke at 1pm on Tuesday afternoon. Clarke will now receive a bye to the last 32.’
When the 49-year-old will be back in action is not clear, with his next scheduled game in the World Open against Stuart Carrington on 23 February.
The seven-time world champion does tend to play the events in China, so he may well compete in Yushan, but it is no certainty.
O’Sullivan has not just pulled out of tournaments over the last month, but also an exhibition event in Finland as he takes a break from the game.
Explaining his choice to pull out of the Masters in January, he told Eurosport: ‘It was a nightmare decision really to make, if you’d have asked me Sunday if I was ready to play I’d probably have been ok to play. But it’s such a massive tournament.
‘I’d been on a three-week trip away playing and I just think I exhausted myself, a lot of pressure while I was away. The build-up of all that just got a bit too much really.
‘I lost the plot on Thursday, snapped my cue, so that’s unplayable, so I knew at that moment in time the right decision was to not play and such a big tournament that I thought whoever was to come in should have had at least a couple of days notice.’
On the fate of the cue, which he has been playing with for a number of years, he added: ‘It was in the bin, one of them wheelie bins, but my mate said we can’t leave that here, so he got it out and brought it with us.
‘I’ve got a couple of other cues that I can start practicing with because there’s some tournaments coming up. I’m going to continue to play so I need to get used to the cue now.’
After some decent runs early in the season, O’Sullivan is still reasonably well placed on the one-year ranking list at number 20.
That will give him the option of playing in the World Grand Prix next month in Hong Kong, which involves the top 32 on those rankings.
