Birthday boy O’Sullivan turned down the TV jungle for UK title shot
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has revealed he rejected a lucrative offer to appear in the “I’m a Celebrity” jungle in order to focus on his quest to claim a seventh UK Championship.
O’Sullivan celebrated his 43rd birthday in style as he stormed into the quarter-finals with a 6-1 win over Jack Lisowski in York yesterday.
But he could have been thousands of miles away if he had taken up the offer from ITV to become the third snooker player to appear on the reality show, after Jimmy White and Steve Davis.
O’Sullivan said: “I was invited this year but I decided to put it on the back-burner. I’m sure in time I’ll give it a go.
“Maybe they can move this tournament. I’ll come flying in like Tarzan from Australia to York with my thong on.”
O’Sullivan would have been one of the top-earning stars on this year’s series but it is a mark of his continued appetite for the sport that he prioritised chasing the £170,000 on offer to this year’s UK winner.
O’Sullivan added: “It was never about the money or I would have gone into the Jungle. I would really like to do it but [not] when you think you can still win tournaments. It was about snooker first.”
Successive hundred breaks in the fifth and sixth frames helped O’Sullivan punish Lisowski for a series of errors after the 27-year-old had won the first frame of the match.
“I’ve played better but my consistency is better and I’m going through a transitional period at the moment,” added O’Sullivan.
“I’ve got to wait until I’m 100 per cent confident in what I’m doing.
“When I went to Sheffield last year I knew I wasn’t going to do anything. I thought, now’s the time to reinvent myself.
“I’m 43 today and I need to find a game that’s capable of competing with these guys.”