Seven-time world snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan will miss the British Open for the fourth successive year.The World Snooker Tour confirmed the 50-year-old had withdrawn from the upcoming tournament for medical reasons.O’Sullivan was recently in action at the China OpenGettyO’Sullivan’s absence continuesIt means O’Sullivan won’t have competed at the event since 2022, when he was knocked out in qualifying.He hasn’t featured in the competition proper since the previous edition in 2004, with the British Open not being staged again until 2021.‘The Rocket’ had been drawn to play Mateusz Baranowski at the Centaur in Cheltenham, where the tournament begins on Bank Holiday Monday (August 31).Instead, Baranowski will now take on Mark Joyce.O’Sullivan won his last World Championship in 2022, beating Judd Trump 18-13 in the final at the iconic Crucible in SheffieldHe was knocked out of this year’s World Championship in the second round before claiming his first World Seniors title.He’s previously spoken about his mental health struggles and how they can affect him at the table.‘A different perspective’Discussing the 2023 Prime Video documentary series, Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything, which went behind the scenes of that triumph, O’Sullivan said: “My highs and lows have been well-documented by the media.“But I felt like now was the right time to do something more definitive – something that I can look back and reflect on as I contemplate retirement.“Going into my seventh World Championship victory, I wasn’t sure I had it in me but allowing the cameras in ended up driving me on in many ways and gave me a different perspective.”O’Sullivan has overcome personal adversity to go down as one of the greatest snooker players of all timeGettyO’Sullivan has also opened up about his battles with addiction in the past.‘I was imploding’On a trailer for the series, he explained: “My addictions are good in many ways because it drives me on. But it just needs to be managed.“People could see that I was imploding. I wasn’t very good at having all this stuff locked inside me. I never want to go to them dark places but sometimes you have to. The truth is I might never make another final.”O’Sullivan and his wife, former Holby City and Footballers’ Wives actress Laila Rouass, recently created a joint Instagram account, giving fans a glimpse into their life.In a post earlier this week, Rouass wrote: “Ronnie has struggled these last few months, but he’s learned to open up to other players, and it’s pretty heartwarming how people want to help and how others are going through the same thing.“It’s a lonely game, but finding comrades like [fellow snooker player] Hossein Vafaei and [friend] Robbie Huxley and the like makes this crazy game a touch easier.“On another note, thanks for following, and hopefully you’ll see a lot more of us posting things that get our agents quaking in their boots.”O’Sullivan once called snooker a ‘horrible’ and ‘evil’ sport, suggesting he’d rather have become a professional footballer.