Ronnie O'Sullivan out of Players Championship as event suffers huge blow amid mass cull of top snooker stars

The standing of the Players Championship suffered a huge pre-tournament blow on Friday when it was confirmed the sport's biggest draw Ronnie O'Sullivan, world champion and world No. 1, would not be participating. Only the top 16 on the sport's one-year ranking list qualify for the Players Championship which breaks off at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton on Monday (February 20-26) after the conclusion of the Welsh Open on Sunday evening.

Ad O'Sullivan – troubled by problems with his cue tip all week in Llandudno – needed to reach the final of the Welsh Open to qualify for the Players, but a shock 5-0 defeat to world No. 49 Tian Pengfei in the quarter-finals ended his hopes of playing at a competition he won in 2018 and 2019. Welsh OpenO'Sullivan bites tip off cue as he crashes out of Welsh Open18 HOURS AGO The snooker GOAT is in good company with half of the world's top 16 astonishingly missing from the 12th ranking event of the campaign, and five of the top 10 not in attendance amid the mass cue cull.

The absentees are: 1. Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) 4. Neil Robertson (Aus) 6.

John Higgins (Sco) 7. Mark Williams (Wal) 9. Zhao Xintong (Chn) 13.

Barry Hawkins (Eng) 15. Stuart Bingham (Eng) 16. Yan Binghtao (Chn) The casualty list is a promoter's nightmare and is likely to prompt serious debate over the qualification process for the Players Championship and Tour Championship, which is contested next month (27 March-2 April) by the top eight on the one-year list.