‘I just want to run out the venue… it’s horrible’ says Ronnie O’Sullivan as he opens up on mental struggles

FOCUSED Ronnie O’Sullivan is dialled in for this month’s Crucible as he has reunited with mind mentor Steve Peters.

The Rocket, 48, credits the Middlesbrough-born psychiatrist for turning round his snooker career and enabling him to negotiate the madness and stresses of 17 days at the World Championship in Sheffield.

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Ronnie O’Sullivan is using the trusted Steve Peters again to help him clinch more glory[/caption]

The pair have worked on and off for more than a decade but whenever Peters, 70, is involved, normally silverware follows.

Their intimate conversations were seen in last year’s excellent Amazon Prime

documentary which covered O’Sullivan’s route to world glory in 2022.

Despite the record-equalling success, the world No.1 was struggling backstage, telling Peters: “I feel ill with pressure. It’s f***ing horrible. I hate it. I feel f***ked.

“My energy’s drained. I feel like I have stage fright. I feel like I want to cry. I’m scared. I’m f***ing gone.”

Speaking ahead of today’s Tour Championship semi-final in Manchester, O’Sullivan revealed he has hooked up with Peters – author of mind management book The Chimp Paradox – ahead of the sport’s flagship event.

It is, in effect, a warning to the rest of the baize fraternity because if O’Sullivan’s mind is right, then he will be switched-on and primed for a tilt at world title No.8.

O’Sullivan said: “I dip in and out with Steve. Obviously I’ve learned a lot, I’ve read the book, I apply it a lot to my job. But then I just go on autopilot and do my own thing.

“He said it’s a bit like going to the gym. If you stop going to the gym, you lose your muscle mass.

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“He said: ‘The stuff you do with me, I can only show you but you’ve to do the work.’

“It’s quite repetitive but once you do it, it sort of tightens your mind up a bit. I need it.

“I think a lot of players, like John Higgins, Neil Robertson, maybe Judd Trump, they don’t overcomplicate things, they’re probably not as complex as me.

“They’ve just a bit more straightforward. I think someone like me needs to quieten my mind down and just try and play and not be too hard on myself.

“The work with Steve gets my head in the right frame of mind.

“A lot of the time I feel like I just want to run out the venue, to be honest with you, I feel frustrated. It’s horrible.

“It probably doesn’t make sense because obviously I’ve won quite a lot of tournaments this year, but winning and playing well are two totally different things.

“Mentally I’ve applied myself. In the meantime I’ve been tinkering so much on my technique it’s got beyond a joke.”

O’Sullivan – who has banked more than £1.1million in prize money this season – added: “I’d much rather be playing well and let the instinctive love of the game take over.

“But it wasn’t always happening and I felt like I was dementing myself.

“I got to the point where I was getting stage fright, even just in exhibitions.

“I was scared to go out there and play because I just thought I’m not going to be able to pot one ball.

“It was embarrassing and that’s not a good place to be as a sportsman, let alone a snooker player, when you’re that low on confidence of whether you can perform or not.

“It’s not a good place to be. So I decided that’s as bad as it can ever get, all I know is to go to Steve Peters and go, ‘I need to get on top of this’.

“It’s like an illness. Like a nervous twitch. It’s something in your mind like an obsession and I’ve got to break that obsession.”