Snooker news - Ronnie O’Sullivan: Rehab was the moment my career truly started

In a candid new episode of Eurosport’s new snooker vodcast, O’Sullivan discusses his life away from the table in depth with Andy Goldstein, covering the highs and lows of one of the great sporting careers.

With the World Championship postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Eurosport has , including a new vodcast, which airs every day at 2pm on Eurosport 1. Snooker fans will also be able to enjoy all nine episodes in full in audio form on a new podcast, The Break.

From his sensational victory as a 17-year-old at the UK Championship in 1993, O’Sullivan has been a talent who has commanded intense attention. In an open discussion, the five-time world champion discusses how he could have won even more titles had his father not been imprisoned just weeks after that seminal victory over Stephen Hendry.

In 1998, he was also stripped of an Irish Masters title and forced to return his prize money after testing positive for cannabis following his win over Ken Doherty in the final.

O’Sullivan also discusses the “lightbulb moment” when he realised he needed to change his lifestyle, resulting in a rehab stint at the Priory – a decision which proved to be a major turning point on his road to sporting greatness. So much so that O’Sullivan considers it to be the moment his career truly started.

Addressing his private life in the 1990s, O’Sullivan tells Goldstein: “I was just partying a bit too much and like I said when I won that tournament (in 1993) I thought I’d made it. I’d come into a bit of money, I had a nice house, a nice car, I was single. So, I could do what I want when I liked really. I just probably chose the wrong company but it just got hold of me really. I took my eye off the ball. I wasn’t really focussed on snooker and I wasted probably five years of my career just messing about really.

“I think [the ‘lightbulb moment’ was] after I lost to Stephen Hendry in 1996, and I was quite overweight as well. I was eating and drinking quite a lot. I was looking at a picture of myself and it dawned on me, and I thought, ‘I need to get myself fit again’. So, I spent three months, I lost my driving licence, so I spent three months just going to the gym two or three times a day, eating really well and got myself in good shape for the next season. And then I managed to win four of five tournaments actually, which was great. But then I went back to drinking and partying again.

“So for the next two years I wasn’t as bad as I was before but I was still doing things that I shouldn’t have been doing. So, that’s why I decided that I had to go to The Priory. Basically, first thing in the morning I was getting up, having a drink, having a joint just to function through the day. Which never felt good because I thought ‘I don’t want to have to rely on this sort of stuff’ but it just a hold of me a bit too much and that’s when I decided to get help for it.

“I just rang up the drugs helpline and said, ‘I’ve got some problems and I need to get some help, I think I know what it is, and I’d like some help.’ She said fine, so she came round the house and spoke to me and within two hours of meeting her she had me in The Priory in Roehampton. That was probably the best thing I’ve ever done.

“I didn’t want to go, I was scared. I thought ‘I’m not an addict, I’m not an alcoholic, I’ve just got to learn to just control it a bit’. And when I went in there and they said it was complete abstinence it was like ‘What? There’s no way I’ll be able to do that.’ But, I managed to get clean and sober.

“I haven’t stayed clean and sober the whole time but I don’t go out and have one or two drinks, I have a glass every six months if it’s a birthday party or New Year’s Eve thing. Otherwise I’m teetotal really.”

O’Sullivan was asked by Goldstein if he looks back at that time and sees a ‘different person’, and said he has effectively wiped six years of his career as a result of his personal issues.

“I wouldn’t look at anything from 1994 up until where I came out The Priory. I just wouldn’t want to look at it because it’s such bad memories for me.

“Anything from coming out The Priory onwards I class as my career that was a proper career really where I was giving it 100%. I wasn’t always mentally in great shape because I struggled with performing badly. But I was still putting the work in, putting the practice in because if my game was alright I was one of the favourites to win any tournament.”