Saw a tweet off someone (and I won't embarrass Ros by saying who it was) suggesting that Rafa had already pulled out of the WTF, but it appears that tweet has since been deleted.
Raonic is boring to watch (and easily taken apart when his serve falters) but I suppose not everybody can have Federer's serve and also have...well, Federer's groundstrokes.
I can't find anything about this subject anywhere else on the internet - so until it is more generally known, I'll disregard the articles as speculation. Re the "dropping like flies" comment - I suppose it referred to the many rumours flying about that Djokovic may miss it because of the birth of his baby - again, I'll wait for official confirmation.