Why Ronnie O’Sullivan is not playing at the Masters this year

Ronnie O’Sullivan is not playing at the Masters next week, withdrawing from the prestigious event two days before the action begins at Alexandra Palace.

The Rocket was due to face Neil Robertson in a blockbuster opening round tie on Wednesday night.

However, on Friday evening World Snooker Tour announced that the 50-year-old had withdrawn due to medical reasons.

O’Sullivan is replaced in the draw by world number 17 Chris Wakelin, who will take on Robertson instead.

It is not unusual for the seven-time world champion to pull out of events and he withdrew from the Masters last year as well.

He also said earlier in the season that he was unlikely to play at Ally Pally, but despite all that, things appeared to have change and it seemed likely O’Sullivan would face Robertson in north London.

That has not proved to be the case, though, and the eight-time Masters champ will not be getting his hands on the Paul Hunter Trophy for a ninth time in 2026.

The Rocket initially said he wouldn’t play

Speaking to talkSPORT in September, he said: ‘I probably won’t play the Masters this year.

‘I moved to Dubai, a lot of my work is in China and the Middle East so it made sense to be near. The jet lag was crucifying. It’s not that easy to just get on a plane and come back to the UK.

‘I think I’m just going to play the UK Championship, hopefully the Tour Championship if I’ve done enough, which I think I have because I did well in Saudi. Then the World Championship.’

O’Sullivan appeared to change his mind

Despite making it pretty clear he didn’t fancy playing the Masters, it seemed that he had then changed his mind.

The Rocket got his preferred slot of playing as late as possible in the first round and, after falling at the first hurdle of the UK Championship in December, he looked to be having another crack at the Masters.

Asked on his Cue Tips YouTube channel if O’Sullivan will be playing. Stephen Hendry said in December: ‘Well he is playing. He requested to play late, I think, so he’s playing Neil on Wednesday night.’

Hendry was not the only person convinced, with Robertson’s coach Joe Perry telling Metro: ‘I think 100 per cent he’ll play.’

Former world number three Neal Foulds said on the Talking Snooker podcast: ‘Surely Ronnie’s going to turn up isn’t he? I don’t really understand why he might not, I just can’t see it. I can’t think of an obvious reason why he wouldn’t play.’

It also emerged that O’Sullivan had been practicing hard ahead of the event, both solo and against fellow professionals Aaron Hill and Jordan Brown in Celbridge, Ireland.

‘In talking to him, he’s in good form in himself and he loved being in the club and playing,’ former pro Fergal O’Brien told Metro. ‘He was certainly playing well enough!’

The eight-time champion pulls out

Then Friday evening came and O’Sullivan was out of the field at Ally Pally with ‘medical reasons’ the reason given by WST, but no further detail.

The Sun reported that ‘sources close to O’Sullivan say he has been ill recently and felt physically drained – though he is okay and on the mend.’

O’Sullivan’s manager Jason Francis hit back at criticism of his withdrawal, stating that the Rocket does not feel well enough to play.

‘I totally get people are upset that Ronnie is not playing the masters but all this people “bought tickets to see him rubbish” when the event was sold out way before the schedule was even announced is complete rubbish,’ Francis posted on X.