Snooker legend Ronnie ‘The Rocket’ O’Sullivan will not participate in the German Masters next week
Ronnie O’Sullivan has pulled out of next week’s German Masters, it has emerged.
The Rocket, 49, was poised to face Dylan Emery, a Welsh amateur, in the Round of 64 next Tuesday. But the seven-time world champion will not now compete in Berlin due to medical reasons.
O’Sullivan’s absence from next week’s tournament follows his withdrawal from The Masters at Ally Pally earlier this month.
Explaining his decision to pull out of the tournament, O’Sullivan said he was “exhausted” after ‘losing the plot’ the week before, where he snapped his cue following a loss to Robert Milkins in the Championship League.
“I’m alright, not too bad,” O’Sullivan said while working for Eurosport the following Monday when he was asked how he was. “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.”
O’Sullivan’s last appearance at a top event came before Christmas, when he competed in the Riyadh Season Championship in Saudi Arabia.
A report from The Sun outlines that O’Sullivan, who spent most of the festive period out in the Middle East, does want to return to action soon.
It’s also claimed that O’Sullivan could make his return in the Welsh Open early next month, with The Rocket currently slated to appear in Llandudno.
The World Snooker Championship is also on the horizon, with the tournament set to take place in April at the world-famous Crucible.
