{"id":512209,"date":"2025-10-19T15:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T15:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/512209\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T15:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T15:27:17","slug":"breathing-a-challenge-snooker-star-withdraws-from-northern-ireland-open-with-worrying-health-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/512209\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Breathing a challenge’ – Snooker star withdraws from Northern Ireland Open with worrying health statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil Robertson has withdrawn from the Northern Ireland Open after picking up a respiratory virus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2010 snooker world champion reached the last 32 of the Xi’an Grand Prix last week, but lost 5-4 to He Guoqiang.<\/p>\n

\"Robertson<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Robertson has had to pull out of the Northern Ireland OpenCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Robertson<\/a> was due to face David Grace in the first round of the 2025 Northern Ireland Open, which begins in Belfast on Sunday.<\/p>\n

However, he will no longer compete in the tournament having posted a worrying health update on social media.<\/p>\n

What did Robertson say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

On X, he said: “Hey guys. After coming back from China I picked up a brutal respiratory virus in Xi’an that didn\u2019t hit me until Sunday. <\/p>\n

“It made breathing anything above 40 per cent a challenge and bed ridden for almost six days.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never experienced anything like it and can quite honestly say it was one of the worst experiences I\u2019ve gone through. <\/p>\n

“I’m on the mend now but still quite a way to go, and for this reason I had no choice but to withdraw from Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

“It’s the only home nation event I haven’t won so it was high on my agenda this season. It’s a shame to miss it but sadly had no choice.”<\/p>\n

Robertson has never won the Northern Ireland Open, with a semi-final appearance in 2022 his best performance.<\/p>\n

He was set to play his ninth tournament in Belfast, although 2025 has still be a successful year of snooker<\/a> for the Australian.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old won his second World Grand Prix title in March as he thrashed Stuart Bingham 10-0 in the final.<\/p>\n

\"Neil<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Robertson picked up his virus after returning from the Xi’an OpenCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Robertson then beat Ronnie O’Sullivan<\/a> 10-9 to win the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in August.<\/p>\n

It’s not yet known when he will return to the table as he continues his recovery from the virus.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland Open details<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Waterfront Hall in Belfast will stage the tenth edition of the next ranking event, the seventh of the season.<\/p>\n

Kyren Wilson has entered as the reigning champion following his 9-3 victory over Judd Trump last year.<\/p>\n

World no.2 Wilson meets Oliver Lines in his opening match, where a win would see him face Matthew Selt or Ryan Day in the last 32.<\/p>\n

Mark Selby, Trump and world champion Zhao Xintong are also in action, whilst Xi’an Grand Prix winner Mark Williams<\/a> withdrew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neil Robertson has withdrawn from the Northern Ireland Open after picking up a respiratory virus. The 2010 snooker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[167293,1144,140276,10380,16,15,80938],"class_list":{"0":"post-512209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-neil-robertson","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-northern-ireland-open","11":"tag-snooker","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-withdraws"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115401540148723391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}