Ronnie O’Sullivan has lifted the lid on his ‘nightmare decision’ to withdraw from the Masters – after claiming he ‘lost the plot’.
The defending champion had been all set to challenge for a record-extending ninth title when he made the shock call to pull out.
‘The Rocket’ was scheduled to face John Higgins in the first round at Alexandra Palace on Sunday afternoon.
However, the 49-year-old opted to instead withdraw from the tournament after snapping his cue at a pre-Masters event.
During a 3-2 Championship League defeat by Robert Milkins at a behind-closed-doors event in Leicester, O’Sullivan’s anger boiled over.
The world No.3 sparked fears over his well-being after he broke his cue and threw it in a bin and later pulled out of his final group game.
O’Sullivan has since withdrawn from the Masters as well, but assured fans he will return to the sport after recovering from exhaustion.
“I’m alright, not too bad,” he said during an interview with Eurosport on Monday evening.
“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 okay 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.
“It’s such a big tournament that I thought whoever was to come in should have had at least a couple of days notice.”
On his cue, O’Sullivan 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.”
O’Sullivan’s spot in the invitational event for the 16 highest-ranked players in the world has since been taken by Neil Robertson.
The latter staged a remarkable comeback from 5-1 down to beat John Higgins 6-5 in their first-round clash on Sunday.
O’Sullivan meanwhile still harbours aspirations of lifting a ninth Masters title as he teased a return to Ally Pally next year.
“This is an unbelievable tournament, top 16, best players in the world, amazing crowd, I’ve won this tournament many times, been in 14 finals,” he continued.
“I’d love to come here and play again and hopefully be lucky enough to win the trophy again, that would be great.”
O’Sullivan, who also decided to miss the Masters in 2020, has won 41 ranking events and seven world titles during his glittering career.
