‘Go out with a smile’ – Ronnie O’Sullivan reveals date he plans to retire and final target before hanging up cue
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN is not giving up snooker just yet – but has given himself a time limit to rediscover his love for the sport.
The seven-time world champion has not played since January after snapping his cue at the Championship League.
O’Sullivan, 49, has yet to decide if he will play at this month’s showdown at the Crucible – telling SunSport he’d be “happy just to win a match” in his current form.
If he sits out the tournament, it will be the first World Championship without The Rocket since 1993.
Ronnie has revealed he is still working towards a comeback after his Leicester meltdown almost four months ago.
But he has set a limit on how soon he needs to find his fire again on the baize.
The Rocket told The Mail: “I’m not quitting just yet, but I will give myself two years to try and figure it out.”
He continued: “I don’t want to finish my career feeling like I wasn’t really performing to the level that I know I can.
“I don’t have to win tournaments, but I just want to feel like I’m enjoying the game. I’d like to go out with a smile on my face.”
O’Sullivan admits he hasn’t enjoyed snooker in almost a decade, with the last time he felt good playing the game back in 2018.
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He added: “Do I think I can do it? Probably not if I’m being honest.
“I think it’s probably a bit too late in my career and I’m probably damaged goods in the form of a snooker player.
“You take a lot of battle scars over the years. But I’m not prepared to quit at this point because I feel like I would be quitting on a bit of a low.’
“I have to try and repair myself and just try and find how I used to play snooker.
“It’s a massive rebuilding process and probably the last one I’ll ever have to do as a snooker player.”
Ronnie is still searching for a new cue after dumping his old pride and joy in a Leicester bin in January.
But he has looked the business in training, recently hitting a 147 on the practice table.
'I'd rather not have the snooker, just a normal family' - Inside Ronnie O'Sullivan's troubled childhood
RONNIE O'SULLIVAN has enjoyed an incredible career as snooker's biggest star.
But the Rocket’s turbulent past has led to struggles with mental health, addiction and yo-yo weight battles.
O’Sullivan’s parents ran a chain of sex shops in Essex and his father was jailed for 20 years for murder when he was just 16.
In the Amazon documentary The Edge of Everything, the snooker icon admitted his dad going to prison had a profound effect.
He said: “I didn’t want to blame everything on that situation with my dad, but I was thinking, ‘I’d rather not have the snooker. just a normal family’. Because… It was a dream, but looking back, it was a nightmare.”
Just a year later, Ronnie became the youngest ever UK Champion, seven days before his 18th birthday. Then at 19, in 1994, he became the youngest Masters champion.
But he has already begun to binge on drink and drugs and, when his mum was sent to prison for tax evasion, in 1996, he struggled to cope with looking after his eight–year-old sister alone.
The Rocket said: “Most people who live in the real world probably have four or five different jobs in their career.
“But as a sportsman, you only get one, so you have to stick with it whether it’s good or bad.
“You have got to stay in it until you decide that it’s not working for you.
“It wasn’t the losing [that made me snap my cue]. It was the playing really, really badly.
“Four years of bad spells is a long time, so it burnt me out.
“It ground me down. It’s been torturous.
“I got to the point, especially at the start of the season, when I was getting scared to go near the practice table or getting scared to get my cue out of my case.”
O’Sullivan has previously indicated he will leave his Crucible decision until the last minute.
The tournament begins next week in Sheffield, with The Rocket indicating he will make his decision on “April 16 or 17”.