The 48-year-old has had a tremendous season, winning the UK Championship, Masters, and Shanghai Masters, and currently leads the world standings at the start of 2024.
He is competing in the World Grand Prix in Leicester this week, but he intends to take a break from competition afterward, most likely skipping the forthcoming German Masters and Welsh Open.
However, he says he wants a shot at qualifying for the World Open in Yushan, with qualifiers in Barnsley next week, and he wants to play in the Players Championship in Telford, which begins on February 17, so it doesn’t sound like a long rest for the Rocket.
‘I’ll be missing quite a few tournaments now after this,’ O’Sullivan said on ITV after defeating Pang Junxu in the first round of the Grand Prix.
‘To be honest with you, I shouldn’t have come here at all, but I believed I’d earned my right here so I’d show up; in retrospect, I should have just bailed on this one too. But I’m here now, so I’ll give it my best attempt.
‘I’ll aim to qualify for the China event because I enjoy them, and then I’ll be pretty much done until the next ITV tournament.
‘I’ll try to attend the Players Championship because it’s a decent competition.’
O’Sullivan said he will not put his cue away fully when he is not competing in upcoming competitions, but will play plenty of exhibitions.
‘I think the most important thing for me right now is my exhibitions,’ he remarked. ‘I’m obligated to perform 20-25 exhibitions per year, so I need to find time for them, plus I have 20-30 days of commitments from my sponsors, so there are two months.
