Ronnie O'Sullivan says he is considering taking up a new sport - and could retire from professional snooker in order to do so.
O'Sullivan is currently competing at the Shanghai Masters in China, which is the second ranking event of the 2024/25 season.
'The Rocket' defeated 16-year-old Zhou Jinhao 6-1 in his second round match, having received a bye through the first round of the tournament by virtue of his world ranking.
O'Sullivan has long hinted at a potential retirement from snooker in the not-so-distant future, and claimed in April that despite a successful previous two seasons that saw him dominate the sport, he hadn't enjoyed playing due to concerns over his game and cue action.
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But the 48-year-old appeared noticeably more upbeat during the recent World Championship, where he lost 10-13 to Stuart Bingham in the quarter-final.
Now, O'Sullivan has indicated that, instead of playing snooker 'for the next 10 or 15 years', he is considering a switch to play eight-ball pool in China.
Speaking to local outlet Let's Meet in Shanghai, O'Sullivan claimed: "Any cue sport fascinates me, so I'm looking at how popular Chinese eight-ball is right now. It's huge, it's massive.
"I can't keep playing snooker against the young guys, getting up for it match in, match out. I don't want to be playing just for the sake of it.
"China's a place I like to go, obviously it's a very popular sport out there. But I'll just have to see what my sponsors are like.
"At the moment, they're sponsoring me as a snooker player, but I'm trying to see if they'll sponsor me as a pool player."
He did, however, counter that point by adding: "To me, it's about keeping my sponsors happy. It doesn't matter if I play pool, snooker, billiards, whatever. I just want to have a nice life.
"They pay my bills, pay my salary, so obviously I've got to keep them sweet. If they want me to keep playing snooker then I'll have to keep playing."
Should O'Sullivan make the surprise move across sports, he would join fellow snooker legend Mark Williams, who has played increasing amounts of Chinese eight-ball pool.
Williams will feature in the Joy Cup World Heyball Masters Grand Finals later this year, with that competition carrying a winners' prize of £557,900 - more than the £500,000 on offer for winning this year's World Snooker Championship.
'The Rocket' himself is no stranger to playing pool, as he represented Europe at the 1996 Mosconi Cup.
He also played in the tournament in 1997, and won a total of four of his 11 matches across singles and doubles competition. In one of his matches, he partnered with Steve Davis.
He also took part in an International Pool Tour event in Las Vegas in 2006, and spoke before that event of what a transition between snooker and pool would look like.
He told Eurosport: "I think it is a lot easier going from snooker and coming to pool, than going to snooker from pool.
"But I still think that there are certain patterns that I'm going to have to learn and ways to play certain shots. But once that comes then I think there shouldn't be too many problems."
Topics:Â Ronnie OSullivan, Snooker
Ryan Smart