Luke Littler will not compete in Wednesday's Players Championship event after getting stuck in traffic led him to miss the strict registration deadline.
The PDC confirmed that the world No 2 missed the 11am cut-off in Wigan.
That means the 18-year-old will be absent from one of the last two tournaments for players to secure their spots in the season-ending Players Championship finals in Minehead, with the last chance on Thursday.
Littler boosted his hopes of securing one of the 64 places, which was at one stage in jeopardy, after victory at the Players Championship 32 earlier this month.
But ‘The Nuke’ will not play today and made light of the situation on social media.
"Back to bed it is," the world champion said. "Wonder who they are gonna call up".
Littler was targeting a place as the sport’s world number one last week, but was knocked out of the European Championship after a thrilling 10-7 second-round battle with James Wade.
Littler’s rival and world No 1 Luke Humphries was shocked in the final by Gian van Veen, but ‘Cool Hand’ reiterated his focus is on maintaining his form at the two Players Championship events this week.
“It's two Players Championship events next for me in Wigan to round off the Pro Tour season,” Humphries said. “I was naturally disappointed to lose in the European Championship final, but fair play to Gian, he showed bottle and deserved the win.
“I'm hoping to sharpen my game up ahead of the Grand Slam and put in some performances here.”
Littler had hit out at fans on social media who doubted his ability to qualify for the Players Championship finals, with a top prize of £120,000.
“I am on social media,” he said. “Lots of people were saying that I wasn’t going to make it. There you go, I’ve won today.”
