- The 49-year-old had previously retired from tournaments for health reasons.
- O'Sullivan missed their final group game during last week's Champions League tie.
Ronnie O'Sullivan has opened up about the circumstances that forced him to withdraw from the Masters for medical reasons just two days before the start of the tournament.
The snooker icon has struggled to regain his form of late and withdrew from the Champions League at Leicester last week before their final group match, following a breakdown following their defeat to Robert Milkins.
O'Sullivan broke his cue on the table after losing a single pot during the contest 3-2, quickly apologizing to the referee and his opponent after the incident.
But in another notable moment during the match, O'Sullivan appeared to make a lewd gesture by spreading his legs, sticking out his tongue and moving his cue back and forth at waist level.
The Rocket last missed the Masters, where he receives great support from his home crowd, in 2020, but previously sat out tournaments for medical reasons, including his mental health and well-being.
Last season, O'Sullivan missed the German Masters to prioritize his “health and wellbeing” and withdrew from the Welsh Open due to “anxiety”. He also withdrew from last month's Scottish Open a day before playing, having also skipped the British Open, Wuhan Open and Northern Ireland Open this campaign.
Ronnie O'Sullivan admitted he “lost his mind” during his match against Robert Milkins last week, forcing him to withdraw from the Masters.
The snooker icon slammed his cue on the table and appeared to make a lewd gesture before losing at Leicester.
But while O'Sullivan continues to keep his cards close to his chest, he was keen to share some details with Eurosport as he revealed what it took to make the “nightmare decision”.
“If you had asked me on Sunday if I was ready to play, I probably would have been fine. It's a huge tournament,” O'Sullivan said.
“Obviously I was on this three-week trip (playing in exhibition events in Asia), playing away from home, and I think I got exhausted.
'(There was) a lot of pressure while I was away and the accumulation of it all became too much. I lost the plot on Thursday and broke my cue, making it unplayable, so I knew at that moment that the right decision was not to play.
“It's such a big tournament that I felt like whoever was going to participate should get at least a couple days' notice.”
O'Sullivan confirmed he is now “fine” but said he will have to adapt to using a new cue, after breaking the old one and leaving the remains in a “wheelie bin”.
“My partner said we couldn't leave that there, so he took it out and brought it with us,” O'Sullivan added.
'I have a couple more courts that I can start practicing with because there are some tournaments coming up. I'm going to keep playing, so now I need to get used to the cue.'
O'Sullivan's admission of exhaustion comes hot on the heels of the player calling taking up the sport his “worst decision”.
O'Sullivan has been traveling around Asia playing exhibition matches for the last month.
The 49-year-old shared in a recent interview that taking up individual sports was one of the worst decisions of his life.
In an interview that took place before his Champions League collapse, O'Sullivan was direct about the impact sport has had on his life.
“In some ways I wish I had a different job,” O;Sullivan told Telegraph Sport. 'I'm lucky in many ways because he's been good to me, but I wish he'd been good at something else. Something more educational, maybe scientific or something more interesting.
'I found that being alone is quite difficult, because you have to motivate yourself, you have to push yourself, you have to discover all the answers for yourself.
“If I was in a team environment, I think I would have enjoyed that camaraderie.”