Jimmy White reveals Ronnie O’Sullivan fib as he makes Crucible prediction

Jimmy White expects Ronnie O’Sullivan to get himself ready to play at the World Championship this season, after missing a string of events. The Rocket has not been seen a great deal this season, pulling out of the British Open, Wuhan Open and Northern Ireland Open in the early stages of the campaign.

The 49-year-old did then compete in a hat-trick of events, but lost early at the International Championship, Champion of Champions and UK Championship. Since Christmas he has only made a brief appearance at the Championship League, where he got so frustrated with his game that he smashed his cue and has not competed since.

Withdrawals from the Masters, German Masters, Welsh Open and this week’s World Open have followed, and it is not clear when he will play again. His old pal White reckons the Rocket is still very motivated to set a new record of eight World Championship titles, beating Stephen Hendry who he is currently level with.

The Whirlwind expects O’Sullivan to be ready to perform in Sheffield this year, and revealed that even when he takes a rest from tournament that he is still practicing. In fact, even if the Rocket says he hasn’t been practicing at all, it is often not true at all.

Speaking to Hendry on his Cue Tips channel, White said: ‘He’d like to get to eight to beat your record. But you’ve got to get your act together, you can’t keep not playing in competitions. ‘He still practices. He’s still playing all the time. I’m sitting on Eurosport sometimes and he says he hasn’t played and the cameramen have just got the balls out for him for four hours.

‘I think he will get it together for the Crucible this year. Whether he’ll win it or not, I don’t know. You’ve got to make [Judd] Trump favourite. ‘I think he will prepare. But the problem I’ve got with him is he’s not sharp, he’s not played any matches.’.

O’Sullivan’s chances to play before the World Championship could be quite limited, with the only event he is currently qualified for being the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong. He is due to face Si Jiahui there on 5 March and even if he does decide to play, he will need to have a good run in Hong Kong to make it into the Players Championship later in March as just the top 16 on the one-year list qualify for that event.

If he does not make it into the Players Championship then his next match would be at the Crucible. O’Sullivan, of course, took a year off playing competitively before returning to win the World Championship in 2013, so few would be ruling his chances out if he arrived in Sheffield with little or no match practice.

Old rival John Higgins suggested that O’Sullivan is simply getting used to a new cue after breaking his previous one at the Championship League when he ‘lost the plot’. ‘I think he’ll be back,’ Higgins said at the Welsh Open earlier this month. ‘I think obviously it’s well-documented with his cue.

‘I think he’s one of the sort of guys who will not want to turn up to an event and not be used to the new piece of equipment that he wants to use. ‘I think he’ll be putting the hours in behind the scenes and getting himself ready for the last part of the season, without a doubt.’.