Ronnie O'Sullivan talks snooker struggles: "I kind of lost the love for the game"

Ronnie O'Sullivan has entered the 2025 World Snooker Championship, but whether he actually plays in it is another matter.

The seven-time World Champion - who won the last of those titles three years ago when he defeated Judd Trump 18-13 in the final - has not competed on the professional snooker circuit since the behind-closed-doors Championship League Invitational at the start of January.

In Leicester for that competition, a frustrated O'Sullivan deliberately broke his cue and withdrew from the tournament despite still having one more round robin match to play.

A few days later, reigning champion O'Sullivan withdrew from the Masters at the Alexandra Palace in London, forgoing his title defence and the opportunity to win the Triple Crown event for a record-extending ninth time.

Since then, the 49-year-old Englishman has pulled out of several events on the World Snooker Tour - the German Masters, Welsh Open, World Open and World Grand Prix.

Many thought that he may come back for the final event - the big-money World Grand Prix in Hong Kong - due to his newly-confirmed residency in the city, but he did not.

O'Sullivan also withdrew from an exhibition in Helsinki he was due to take part in alongside John Higgins in January.

Throughout his 30-year plus career, O'Sullivan has experienced many ups and downs, although he has always played in the World Snooker Championship and made it to the Crucible.

In his rookie season as a professional in 1992/93, a 16-year-old O'Sullivan won ten qualifying matches to reach the 32-player main draw at the Crucible Theatre, and has appeared at the hallowed arena every year since.

Even in 2013, having taken the whole season off - bar one match in a PTC event - O'Sullivan returned for the big one and successfully defended the world crown; one of his most remarkable feats.

With the 2025 World Snooker Championship around the corner, O'Sullivan has provided no further clues as to whether he will participate, although he did recently speak to TNT Sports about his prospects of playing in it.

"I haven't made my mind up" O'Sullivan said.

"I’d love to be able to go there and play, I'd love to be able to have the confidence to be able to get my cue out and go and play snooker.

"I just need to give myself as much time as possible to see where I'm at with it, and see whether it's something I'm going to be able to do".

Even before O'Sullivan's latest hiatus from the professional scene, this 2024/25 season was already proving to be a difficult one for him.

Last season, 'The Rocket' enjoyed a sensational term - even by his own standards - winning five titles, including the UK Championship and Masters. During this campaign, however, he has yet to reach a final.

O'Sullivan had a solid start to the season by reaching the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters and then the Xi'an Grand Prix, and the quarter-finals of the Saudi Arabia Masters.

But in his next five events, he won just three matches, and went out first round in the Champion of Champions and UK Championship - albeit to inspired opponents Xiao Guodong and Barry Hawkins who each went to the final of that respective competition.

Again speaking with TNT Sports, O'Sullivan talked about his snooker struggles: "It's been a real struggle. I've tried to play my way through.

"Probably three and a half years out of the last four have pretty terrible for me, and that's kind of took its toll.

"It kind of ground me down to the point where I kind of lost the love for the game."

O'Sullivan is one of the top 16 seeds for the Crucible, but should he withdraw from the blue riband event before the third qualifying round begins on April 12th, world number 17 Gary Wilson would replace O'Sullivan as a seed.

If O'Sullivan withdraws after that date, whoever he is drawn to face in the first round at the Crucible will get a bye into the last 16.