Ronnie O'Sullivan to pull out of iconic £350k snooker tournament and outlines plans

Ronnie O'Sullivan claims the chances of him competing in the 2026 Masters are currently low. The snooker star has reduced his schedule in recent months, having taken a lengthy hiatus at the beginning of the year and left the UK to live in Dubai. It comes after O'Sullivan's most recent withdrawal from a tournament, having pulled out of the recent British Open due to medical reasons.

He had been due to play Sanderson Lam, but was instead replaced by Daniel Womersley. O'Sullivan will turn 50 before the turn of the year and hasn't competed competitively since the Saudi Arabia Masters in August. The Rocket has revealed he's already looking towards the end of his career, with O'Sullivan committed to reducing the number of tournaments he plays in.

Talking to talkSPORT, O'Sullivan revealed that will likely mean he sits out the Masters at the turn of the year. 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. It would be nice to win that one more time before I snap another cue."

Given the current quality in the field, claiming another Crucible crown will be a tall order for O'Sullivan, even if he did reach the semi-final of this year's edition. Regardless, the seven-time world champion is keen to focus his efforts on the big one.

He added: "I've never been driven by titles. Listen, I'll take one. That makes sense to make that [the World Championship] the main focus. Which I probably will. In the back of my mind, I'm like, 'OK, let's just get ready for Sheffield for the next three years'.

"Whatever happens in between, it's not really that important other than to just enjoy it, try and nick a couple of tournaments if I can. But obviously Sheffield is a different beast. It's not an easy place to play. Longer frames, it suits my style of play.

"I sort of plod along, which you need to at Sheffield. There's no point being great one minute and then terrible the next. I'm pretty good at plodding along and that usually gets the job done at the World Championship."