O’Sullivan in call for ‘compassion’

World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has accused snooker chiefs of lacking “compassion”.

O’Sullivan is concerned by an increasingly heavy schedule and has claimed he feels “blackmailed” into playing, because missing any event could see his ranking fall or a fine imposed.

He collapsed due to exhaustion in December and later suffered with glandular fever. A father to two young children, who live with his former partner Jo Langley, O’Sullivan has increasingly few weekends at home following the introduction of the Players Tour Championship circuit, which sees small, low-pay ranking events staged from Friday to Sunday.

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After clinching his fourth world title against Ali Carter, O’Sullivan said: “It would be sad for me to walk away from snooker, and I do think it would be a loss for snooker because I still think I’ve got a lot to give. But it needs to be sustainable, it needs to be fair.

“Sometimes you need to have some compassion for people and cut some people a bit of slack.

“We need a bit of support from the people running the game, and not just to expect that you can come in and all of a sudden put 30 tournaments on.

“There’s certain pressures that I can’t do with anymore. I asked for support from World Snooker and I never got it.”