O’SULLIVAN: I WAS A HOSPITAL CASE

SNOOKER

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has revealed he spent “four or five days” in hospital during last year’s World Championship.

Following a 10-7 win over David Gilbert at the Crucible in 2016, O’Sullivan suffered what he described as a breakdown. The incident saw him smash a cue against his dressing-room wall before immediately leaving the building and disappearing from public sight.

And yesterday the Rocket (left) said: “I had had a massive workload, probably too much, and worked myself to the bone.

“There was huge pressure at that tournament and straight after that match I was driven to hospital in London for four or five days. “I was physically exhausted and on a low.” Asked if it was a breakdown he suffered, he said: “I think it was. It was touch and go whether I would play my second-round match but one of the doctors said ‘try this medication to slow your mind down’, and it worked.”

Now O’Sullivan says he has rekindled his love affair with snooker – and wants to play until he is 50. “I am 41 now, so that is another nine years. But 50 sounds a good number to stop and go away and do something else,” he said.