Stephen Maguire's snooker cue broken following flight home from tournament

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Former UK Championship winner Stephen Maguire's new snooker cue has been broken following his flight home from the ongoing Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.

The Scotsman - who has won six ranking titles throughout his professional career - posted shocking images of his damaged cue on both Facebook and Instagram on Thursday.

Snooker-wise, it has not been a great week for the current world number 31. On Monday night, Maguire lost 4-1 to fellow countryman Anthony McGill in his first match of the £550,400 ranking tournament at the Waterfront Hall in the Northern Irish capital city.

stephenmaguiresnooker on Instagram

Insult was added to injury for Maguire, though, as following his flight back after his defeat, the 43-year-old found the end of his snooker case buckled, and discovered that his cue inside was split and bent underneath the ferrule.

According to a post Maguire put up on Facebook, the cue was brand new and this was his first trip away with it.

Maguire is the latest in a string of professional players who have suffered damage to their snooker cue whilst travelling to and from events in recent times.

stephenmaguiresnooker on Instagram

2019 Indian Open champion Matthew Selt's cue of 10 years was harmed when he made his way to Riyadh in August for the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. Selt had to visit a local carpenter in Saudi to fix the cue so he could compete in the big-money competition.

Travelling back from the same event, four-time World Champion John Higgins found his snooker cue was warped and "like a banana" following water damage.

Higgins explained that during his stopover between Paris and Edinburgh, there was very heavy rain at the time and felt that his ski tube - which was holding the cue - was sitting on the tarmac and rainwater seeped inside.

Unable to use the cue which was ruined due to the damage, Higgins had to change equipment, but perhaps it was a happy accident as the 31-time ranking event champion has since reached the British Open showpiece match - his first ranking event final appearance in nearly two-and-a-half years.

If there is some comfort for Maguire, it's the fact that he's not due back in action until the second half of November for the 2024 UK Championship qualifiers in Leicester.

Maguire doesn't need to play in the Scottish Open qualifiers at the start of next week, and he lost to professional rookie Haydon Pinhey, 6-2, in International Championship qualifying a few weeks ago, therefore will not be travelling to Nanjing in China for the main venue stages of the event at the start of November.

He hasn't made it to next month's Champion of Champions invitational either - all events before the UK qualifiers.

It has been a disappointing start to the season for the former world number two having reached the last 16 of just one tournament, so far.

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