Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby took part in an enlightening discussion on the importance of mental health in snooker on Monday.
Following his impressive 6-1 first-round victory over Ali Carter in the Masters, Selby was welcomed into the Eurosport studio by pundits O’Sullivan, Alan McManus, and presenter Radzi Chinyanganya.
After dissecting Selby’s terrific display in which the three-time former Masters winner compiled a brace of century breaks, the conversation turned to the Leicester man’s recent struggles with mental health issues.
Selby, who has opened up honestly about his situation in the past, revealed he has been in a better place this season, but it’s still a case of taking it day by day.
“I’m okay at the moment,” Mark Selby told the Eurosport studio panel. “I’m seeming to manage it a little bit better at the moment.”
“I was speaking to a doctor for about six months to a year. He sort of told me how to control it a little bit more. The way he explained it is it’s like losing a loved one.
“He said you’ll never get over it, but you’ll learn to deal with it a bit better. Before, the position I was in, it was all new to me.
“I didn’t know – it just hit me from nowhere. I explained to him about all the stuff I’d gone through in my past.
“He said that I’d been suffering for a while and not knowing. I was waking up and just thinking that people feel crap some days and some days you feel good.
“But he said it was like a combination of that building up, and sooner or later it’s like a bottle of coke.
“Once you shake it and open the top, sooner or later it explodes. Like I said, it hit me from nowhere.
“Working with him, I’ve dealt with it a little bit better. But I’m sure it’ll rear its head again at some point. It’s just how I deal with it.
“At the World Championship this year, I probably shouldn’t have played. I wasn’t in a great place going in.
“But I thought, I’ll go there and if I win one or two games, with the atmosphere and the buzz of the place, that might trigger something and turn you around.
“Looking back, it didn’t. I probably shouldn’t have played. But you know, I’ve learned from that and know that if I’m in that position again, no matter what tournament, I won’t play.”
O’Sullivan has famously had his own inner demons to overcome and, indeed, pulled out of this year’s edition of the Masters citing medical grounds.
The Rocket admitted that he had “lost the plot” last week at Championship League Snooker, where he snapped his cue and threw it in the bin before withdrawing from the action at the Alexandra Palace the following day.
But the 49 year-old has long praised the work of Dr. Steve Peters for his role in the seven-time world champion’s success – particularly in the second half of his career.
O’Sullivan has been criticised – sometimes deservedly – for his outspoken comments about the World Snooker Tour, its venues, and some of its players.
Yet having listened intently to his old rival’s turmoil, the world number three offered a genuine suggestion that WST could introduce to better protect the welfare of its members.
“I think World Snooker should have somebody,” Ronnie O’Sullivan said. “Like in football, they have a masseuse and people sorting out injuries.”
“I think in snooker, they should have someone at the tournament employed, as someone’s struggling and coming off the table, who they can have ten minutes with.
“I’m not saying everyone will go in there. But I just think for the…because a lot of people suffer in silence basically.
“I can tell by looking at them that they are struggling. They should have someone to go to and talk to. That’s so important.
“You can have coaches sorting your cue action out, but really you need someone just to unload a bit.
“I think it would really help the players. I know Shaun Murphy is part of the panel [WPBSA Players Board].
“But if they could find the money to employ someone full-time to be there for the players, it really is tough mentally.
“Listen, if he’s [Selby] struggling mentally and I struggle mentally, John Higgins struggles mentally, then the other 124 are a million per cent struggling mentally.”
Featured photo credit: Eurosport
