Ronnie O’Sullivan has pulled out of the Welsh Open hours before he was scheduled to play.
The World Snooker Tour has confirmed that The Rocket would no longer be appearing in Llandudno meaning first-round opponent Jamie Clark has received a bye into the second round.
O’Sullivan has been absent from snooker since a Championship League defeat last month which saw tensions boil.
The loss saw him snap his cue and strike the table before later withdrawing from the Masters 24 hours before his scheduled clash with John Higgins at Alexandra Palace.
The withdrawal is the latest in a line of missed events for The Rocket having also missed the German Masters and the remainder of the Championship League in addition to the Masters.
Reports previously suggested that medical reasons played a part in O’Sullivan’s lack of action.
Asked about his decision not to face Higgins in the Masters, O’Sullivan told Eurosport: “Yeah, it was a nightmare decision to make. You know, if you’d have asked me Sunday if was I ready to play, I probably would have been okay to play, but it’s such a massive tournament.
“I’ve obviously been on this three-week trip away playing, and I just think I exhausted myself. There was a lot of pressure while I was away, and I just think the build-up of all that kind of just got a bit too much, really.
“The right decision was not to play. It’s such a big tournament I felt whoever was going to come in should at least have a couple of days’ notice.”
O’Sullivan, a four-time Welsh Open winner, is not scheduled to play again until his match against Stuart Carrington at the World Open in China in February.
But recent omissions are likely to cast doubts over whether he will travel to the Far East for the tournament.
This year’s Masters champion Shaun Murphy, who kicks off his Welsh Open campaign begins his campaign on Tuesday, expressed his own doubts as to whether O’Sullivan would compete at the event.
“Ronnie spoke at the Masters about not being in a great place,” Murphy said in an interview with the BBC. “The last time that he was out with his cue he actually snapped it, so I wouldn’t say his appearance here to play on this table is absolutely guaranteed.
“But all of us in the snooker world are excited about his return, whenever that might be.”
Elsewhere, Kyren Bracken faces Marco Fu on Tuesday hoping to book his place in the second round and Jak Jones takes on Matthew Stevens in an all-Welsh clash.
Higgins, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson booked their place in the second round with convincing wins on Monday.
