Legend Ronnie O'Sullivan says the sport has taken a toll on his mental health

Photo/George Wood/Getty Images How many of you started to like snooker because of Ronnie O’Sullivan? However, it does not matter, because if you like snooker you need to know this name. The man who won back-to-back World Snooker Championships and his seventh Masters title in 2017. O’Sullivan, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport made his first-century break aged 10 and his first 147 at 15. Ronnie’s career total of 34 ranking titles is second only to Stephen Hendry’s 36, while his career earnings over £10 million put him in first place on snooker’s all-time prize-money list. The five-time world champion has claimed if he could again choose a career, he would not opt for snooker. He blamed the sport for being prescribed antidepressants in 2001 and revealed the pressure led to panic attacks. “Snooker is a really hard sport and if I had my time over again I definitely wouldn't choose snooker as a sport to pursue,” the world No 1 told the BBC's Don't Tell Me the Score podcast. ”A lot of people have said over the years, he's up and down, he's unstable, and I'm not. I always call it 'snooker depression'.” “If I didn't play snooker, I would never have to take any medication ever,” he said, while recalling how he felt after a radio interview before the tournament had to be cut short due to a series of panic attacks. “I was in my hotel room in the Hilton in Sheffield, I put the phone down and I just lay on the bed and just phoned the Samaritans. I was nine, 10 months clean out the Priory, I'd had my best snooker season ever; I'd won six out of 11 events. If you were to base success on external things, it was the most successful season any snooker player had had. Even winning tournaments isn't solving my problems. What is it, why am I feeling like this? I had these episodes where I'd just disappear. I'd run off and people would think he's having a tantrum, it's just I can't cope sometimes. It's not that I can't cope with snooker, I just can't cope with normal life sometimes.” O'Sullivan turned to run to help ease his anxiety and rates his 10km personal best as his biggest achievement, ahead of any of his five world titles. “I came 180th in the Southern England Cross Country nine miles over Parliament Hill, 34 minutes in a 10km race in France, so they're all my proudest achievements because not many people know about that. I had a 10 to a 12-year period where I was addicted to running. A lot of the other problems I didn't need to worry about. If I ran it kept me on the straight and narrow.” O'Sullivan described the effect the antidepressants had on him, adding: “Within an hour and a half the drug had got into me, relaxed me, took the anxiety away. I can go and have a coffee, sit in the coffee shop. I likened it a bit to when you're on a train in London, people rushing towards you, that's how it felt. I just felt in a pure state of panic, took this tablet and everything just slowed down. If someone came up and asked for my autograph I'd just freeze and I just thought "I can't be like that. I don't want to be like that".”

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