KEY POINTS:
The new year will probably hold only one certainty for snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan - a disciplinary hearing. The hearing comes after O'Sullivan walked out of the UK Championships, conceding his quarter-final to former world champion Stephen Hendry.
O'Sullivan has threatened to turn his back on snooker a
number of times and, while he may escape serious disciplinary action, the game is still wondering if its great maverick will finally match his words with action.
His decision to concede to Hendry in the middle of the match this month certainly suggested he has had enough. O'Sullivan was true to his nickname, The Rocket, as he hared out of York's Barbican Arena when 4-1 down in the first-to-nine clash.
O'Sullivan said he was a "perfectionist", and was playing so badly he walked away from a game that, "with hindsight, I should have continued".
"I am feeling disappointed with myself and am hurt and numb, but I am a fighter and I will be back on my feet fighting stronger and harder than ever."
Former world champion John Parrott said: "If Ronnie is genuinely not enjoying the game and it is making him that unhappy then perhaps it is best he walk away. His health must be the most important thing."
O'Sullivan's mental health is an area of concern. Originally, he was regarded as a breath of fresh air and his antics were treated as a joke, although their increased regularity screamed of a deeper problem.
With a father in jail, a mother who had been in jail, drug problems and fights with rivals that littered his battle with depression, O'Sullivan was a man in need.
Ironically, evidence of his illness was provided at this same tournament a year ago. Then, O'Sullivan sat during his second-round defeat against Mark King with a towel draped over his head. It was irrational, but pure O'Sullivan.
It also seemed irrational when in the 1996 World Championship, he played left-handed against Alain Robidoux. O'Sullivan prevailed 10-3, and there was no offer of a handshake from the Canadian.
At a disciplinary hearing, O'Sullivan had to prove he could play to a professional standard left-handed. He played and won three frames against Rex Williams and the charge of bringing the game into disrepute was dropped.
Days later he was found guilty of assaulting an official, given a two-year suspended ban, a 20,000 fine and told to donate 10,000 to charity. Two years later, he tested positive for marijuana and was stripped of the Irish Masters title.
Then there have been the feuds with other players. Before his 2002 World Championship semifinal against Hendry, O'Sullivan, brooding over a perceived slight three years before that, said he wanted to send the seven-time world champion "back to his sad little life".
A couple of years ago he became interested in Buddhism.
"Some feller came up to me, a dentist I think he'd been, and said, 'Read this book and tell me what you think'. The book was called The Power of Now. What was the book's message? Stop thinking and stop being mad. I've tried everything. I've tried religion, Prozac. They've never done it for me."
Perhaps that is because he has had so much to contend with in his private life.
In 1992, his father was convicted of murdering the bodyguard of Charlie Kray, brother of the Kray twins, while his mother served time in the mid-1990s for VAT offences in connection with the family pornography business.
It would all be enough to derail the most stable individual; O'Sullivan, perhaps, has coped rather well.
- INDEPENDENT
