Ronnie O’Sullivan admitted his issues with alcoholism caused “a lot of damage” to his personal and professional life. Ahead of beginning his UK Championship journey this week, the 49-year-old opened up about the struggles he’s faced throughout his life, namely alcohol.

Having previously revealed that he’d “lost himself” to booze and drugs in the 1990s after turning professional aged just 16, the snooker icon spoke to TNT Sports about his problems with alcohol and the toll it took in the latter years of his career. Asked what he’d change about his life if he could turn back time, the seven-time world champion said: “It’s a nice thing in many ways [to have support] but I don’t want people to feel sorry for me either, thinking ‘oh, he’s had his problems, this, that’.

“That’s life, life throws you whatever and you have to deal with it and that’s a blessing that we have. I haven’t always dealt with it, if I could turn the clock back, I would do things so much differently. I think I would have not gone a bit wayward when I was 18,19. I wish I’d not ventured out into that drinking, partying sort of thing, that way of life.

“If I could take six, seven years out of my life and do them differently, it would have been from 2019 to 2025. I think I caused a lot of damage in those years to my game, which, in effect, caused a lot of damage off the table, that way of life. I became quite vulnerable, unconfident.”

While O’Sullivan won seven ranking finals during that six-year span, he was left bereft by his drinking issues and felt there were times he could have been consumed by excess for decades.

He added: “I just watched the Charlie Sheen documentary and he went on for about 30 years. I got out after three years, so I had a result, but he went on for 30 years and I was thinking wow, he’s lucky to be alive. There are times when you feel like that could have been me.”

Now an avid runner, O’Sullivan was asked how he came to the realisation to kick the habit and revealed it was during a period of sobriety that he decided to put the drink down for the final time. “It was actually one of my sober moments,” O’Sullivan explained.

“I felt a bit down, and the reason I was feeling down was because I was missing that excitement, what I thought was excitement. I couldn’t live sober in a way, I found living sober a problem. I thought, ‘This is not good’, and that’s when it hit me. I reached out for help and I went to rehab and got clean, and realised being sober and clean and happy was where I used to be and where I want to be. I can’t keep thinking I can get away with the odd night out anymore.”