Is Ronnie O'Sullivan playing on the World Snooker Tour in 2025/26?

The 2025/26 World Snooker Tour kicks into gear next week with questions still surrounding the participation of the sport's greatest ever player, Ronnie O'Sullivan.

'The Rocket' undertook a near four month long hiatus from the sport in the build-up to the 2025 World Snooker Championship after enduring difficulties both and off the table.

However, despite threatening to pull out of the Crucible showpiece, O'Sullivan made the decision to stage a return and subsequently enjoyed a run to the semi-finals of the event, eventually succumbing to defeat at the hands of eventual winner Zhou Xintong.

The seven-time champion of the world never really hit first gear in Sheffield, offering an honest appraisal of his performances in Yorkshire following his defeat in the last four, saying his 'confidence was as low as it had ever been'.

Those remarks together with his recent decision to move to the Middle East have left many fans wondering whether the Londoner had tackled the baize as a professional for the final time.

"I’ll be moving away to the Middle East - we’ll see how it goes, I might be back in six months, I might not," he told TNT Sports at the time.

A new life somewhere else. I don’t know how that is going to pan out. I will still try to play snooker but I don’t know what the future looks like for me, really.

- Ronnie O'Sullivan (TNT Sports)

"Snooker is a big part of my life but I have to try and figure out what my future looks like, whether it’s playing or not."

Since then, there's been almost radio silence from the popular potter who is believed to be enjoying and adjusting to his new life out of the limelight.

O'Sullivan, who turns 50 later this year, has been vocal about snooker's growing popularity in Saudi Arabia, even opening an academy in the country's capital, Riyadh, 12 months ago.

"I would love to see tour players and even world champions from Saudi Arabia one day, and it will give me great satisfaction to play a role in their development," he said after details of his venture alongside boxing bank roller Turki Alalshikh were announced.

Whilst it's not been confirmed that he has indeed set up his new base in the Gulf state, it would certainly make sense.

'The Rocket' spent a couple of weeks at his academy in the build-up to the World Snooker Championship back in April, and has been spotted at the state-of-the-art facility in recent weeks, potentially in preparation for his hopeful return to action next month.

When does Ronnie O'Sullivan next play?

Ronnie O'Sullivan is scheduled to get his 2025/26 campaign up and running on Wednesday, July 30, at the Shanghai Masters.

He's been drawn to take on either Barry Hawkins or Wu Yize in the second round of the non-ranking invitational - with his match set to start at 12:30 (BST).

'The Rocket' is also in qualifying for both the Wuhan Open - which he pulled out of last season - and the British Open.

However, despite qualifiers for both of those events taking place in Leicester next week, O'Sullivan's ties against Allan Taylor and Sanderson Lam will take place at the final stages of the events themselves.

To guarantee the participation of the leading players in the sport - and to help boost ticket sales - qualifying matches involving the top 16 players in the world tend to be held over to the main arena.

That means, providing he doesn't withdraw from the events, he will play Taylor in a best-of-nine showdown in Wuhan, China, on Sunday, August 24 and then Chinese operator Lam at The Centaur in Cheltenham on Monday, September 22.