Mark Selby hopes Ronnie O’Sullivan mental health chat leads to positive change

Mark Selby hopes his eye-opening chat with Ronnie O’Sullivan on mental health can lead to more help for players who may be suffering.

The two multiple world champions have been open about their struggles with mental health over their incredible careers.

They may be old rivals on the baize, but after Selby’s first round win at the Masters the pair had a very open and honest chat on Eurosport about how mentally difficult top level snooker can be.

They both recognise that other players will be suffering as well, with O’Sullivan calling for more direct help on the tour.

‘I think World Snooker should have someone at a tournament employed for if someone is struggling, come off the table and needs to have 10 minutes with someone,’ said the seven-time world champion on Eurosport. ‘I’m not saying everyone would go in there. But a lot of players suffer in silence, I can tell, I just look at them, they’re struggling.

‘They should have someone to go to and talk to. You have coaches sorting your cue action out, but really you need someone to unload a bit. I think it would really help the players.

‘If he [Selby] is struggling mentally and I struggle mentally and John Higgins struggles mentally then the other 124 are a million per cent struggling mentally.’

Selby’s Masters campaign came to an end on Thursday night, losing 6-2 to Mark Allen, but he hopes his chat with the Rocket has a lasting impact and O’Sullivan’s suggestion is taken seriously.

‘I was just being honest. I’m in a better place at the moment but I’m taking one day at a time,’ said the four-time world champion. ‘As I keep saying I’ll probably have a bit of a low again and hopefully I can deal with it better than what I dealt with it before.

‘Ronnie made a good point about having someone on tour around tournaments. There’s probably more people than just me and Ronnie suffering, it’s just that we’ve spoken out about it, that’s why you see me and him.

‘It’s not easy. It’s an individual sport and it’s tough out there, mentally. To have someone who you could turn to, just for 10-15 minutes, is probably a good thing to do and maybe something we can look into.’

While Selby and O’Sullivan’s mental struggles are quite different, the Leicester cueman found the conversation helpful.

‘For sure. There’ll probably be some bits where my doctor and whoever he speaks to will agree that we both need to do similar things,’ he said.

‘Everyone’s mental health situation is different. But it all comes down to one thing at the end of the day, there’s certain things you need to do to keep it at bay.

‘It’s never going to go away and I know that, but at the moment I’m doing good.’

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) chairman Jason Ferguson responded to the chat between the snooker icons, and while there is not currently someone to directly go to at an event, there is help available to players.

‘I thought the players spoke very, very well,’ said Ferguson. ‘This is a very lonely sport, an individual sport of course, and you never know what people are going through.

‘Through the WPBSA we have a large number of player services and one of those is confidential hotlines, there is player support.

‘We’ve actually broken the governing body up and created what we call “the athletes’ commission”. It’s called “WPBSA Players” and it’s chaired by Shaun Murphy – a player – it’s a player’s body, made up of players to support players.

‘There are finances provided to that body to ensure that specialist services can be employed to provide services to the players.’

As for Selby’s Masters campaign, it ended disappointingly but he is feeling very positive about how he is playing and the rest of the season ahead.

‘I feel good about my game. It’s just not doing it consistently game after game, which is obviously what I need to look at doing,’ he said.

‘The way my game’s at, I can’t complain, I feel like it’s in good shape. If I’m playing anything like this come Sheffield I’ll be happy.’