Ronnie O’Sullivan has withdrawn from the upcoming Wuhan Open due to medical reasons and has been replaced in the draw.
The Rocket reached the final of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters last week, where he was narrowly beaten 10-9 by Neil Robertson in an epic contest on Saturday night.
The 49-year-old produced some immaculate snooker in Jeddah, knocking in two 147s in his 6-3 semi-final win over Chris Wakelin.
He was due to play Allan Taylor in Wuhan on Sunday, but will not compete in the ranking event, with World Snooker Tour announcing that his withdrawal is due to medical reasons.
As it is an opening round match, O’Sullivan will be replaced by the leading player on the Q School rankings, Umut Dikme, who will face Taylor.
This is just the third edition of the Wuhan Open, with O’Sullivan reaching the quarter-finals of the first in 2023 and withdrawing from last year’s event, again for medical reasons.
The Rocket is next scheduled to compete in the British Open on Monday September 22 against Sanderson Lam.
The English Open is played in Brentwood the week before the British Open with the draw yet to be made, but O’Sullivan has always played in that event in the past.
The run to the final in Saudi Arabia last week saw the Rocket climb back up to number four in the world rankings thanks to the £200,000 runner-up prize.
He had started the season projected to be outside of the world’s top 16 ahead of the World Championship, which would have seen him face qualifying for the Crucible, but those fears have been eased.
The huge financial win in Jeddah now sees O’Sullivan at number seven on the ‘Race to the Crucible’ standings.
That takes a lot of pressure off the seven-time world champion to compete in events, if indeed he felt that kind of pressure anyway.
Last year’s edition of the Wuhan Open was held in October and saw a surprise winner in Xiao Guodong.
Xiao landed his first ranking title by downing Si Jiahui 10-7 in an all-Chinese final, 17 years after first turning professional.
Judd Trump had claimed the unique trophy in the first ever Wuhan Open, beating Ali Carter in the 2023 final.
O’Sullivan will not be in the draw but it the rest of snooker’s star names will be in action, including Trump, Zhao Xintong, Ding Junhui, Kyren Wilson, Robertson, Mark Selby, John Higgins.
The champion in Wuhan will claim a top prize of £140,000, with the final played on Saturday August 30.
The event gets underway at 3am UK time on Sunday August 24 at the Optics Valley Gymnasium, shown live in the UK on TNT Sports and Discovery+.