Mark Selby reveals he almost RETIRED from snooker after...

MARK SELBY came close to quitting snooker last summer as he battled with crippling mental health issues. Eight months on, the four-time world champion has won two ranking titles and will head to the Crucible in April as one of the favourites. The Jester from Leicester — who has suffered with depression all through his career — had a sit-down chat with his wife, Vikki, and pals and considered hanging up his cue after losing to Joe O’Connor in the first round at Sheffield last year.

Image Credit: The Sun [Mark Selby of England at the World Snooker Championships.]

After winning the Welsh Open on Sunday, Selby revealed: “If you’d asked me after that game at the Crucible would I carry on, I’d have probably said no. “If you had put me on the spot, there and then, I’d have probably never played again. “I spoke to friends and family and said, ‘I’m not really enjoying it . . . I cannot keep putting myself through it’ because it was making me even more ill.

Image Credit: The Sun [Mark Selby holding the Ray Reardon Trophy after winning the Welsh Open.]

“They were saying, ‘Why don’t you have a bit of time out? Don’t go anywhere near the table.’. “I spoke to my doctor and he said to me, ‘Whenever you feel like that, just pick and choose. I know you want to play in everything but you need to start putting yourself first.’. “That’s what I thought I would do and after the summer, I seemed to be in a better place. “That’s not to say that from now until the end of the season, I might play in everything — that could easily turn.

“But if I’m in that position again like I was a couple of weeks before the last Worlds, I definitely won’t compete. It’s not healthy.”. Selby, 41, beat Stephen Maguire 9-6 in the Llandudno final to claim a 24th ranking success, following his British Open win in September. Part of his £100,000 prize pot will go towards a Kindle book reader for his ten-year-old daughter Sofia — though he has little time to get one.

Tomorrow, he flies to the World Open in China, where he faces Liu Hongyu on Sunday. The world No 3 added: “Confidence-wise, this win is great. But confidence is only good if you’re in a good place. “If you aren’t in a great place mentally then that confidence is irrelevant because you won’t perform to a good level. “At the moment, if I can maintain where I am, then of course I’ll go to the Crucible very confident.