O'Sullivan to make late decision on competing at World Championship

Seven-time winner Ronnie O'Sullivan will give himself "as much time as possible" to decide whether to compete at the World Snooker Championship.

The Englishman, 49, has been an ever-present at the Crucible since turning professional in 1992 and would be going for a record eighth world title in the modern era.

However, he has not played on the World Snooker Tour (WST) since January, when he withdrew from his Championship League group - and was so frustrated with his game that he snapped his cue after losing four of his five matches.

O'Sullivan subsequently pulled out of the Masters at Alexandra Palace on medical grounds, missed the German Masters in Berlin and apologised to fans after electing not to play at the Welsh Open.

He also withdrew from the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong in March, increasing speculation he may not return to action in Sheffield, where he is one of the seeds.

"I don't know yet. I haven't made my mind up, I'll probably make a decision on maybe 17 or 18 April," O'Sullivan said on TNT Sports.

"I don't know when I'm due to play my first match, so I'm going to try and leave myself as much time as possible.

"I'd love to be able to go there and play. I'd love to be able to have the confidence to be able to get my cue out and go and play snooker.

"I just need to give myself as much time as possible to see where I'm at with it, and see whether it's something I'm going to be able to do."

The World Championship, which is regarded as the sport's toughest test, begins on 19 April and runs for 17 days until 5 May.

Qualification for the event ends on 16 April and if 'The Rocket' were to withdraw on the eve of the tournament, it would mean a qualifier receiving a bye to the second round.

O'Sullivan memorably defended his world crown in 2013, despite only having played one competitive match prior to the showpiece event after taking an extended break from snooker that season.

He won five tournaments last term and reached the semi-finals at the Xi'an Grand Prix, Shanghai Masters and Riyadh Season Snooker Championship earlier in this campaign.

However, even though he is widely regarded as the game's greatest-ever player and has broken almost every record in the sport, he has repeatedly stressed that he has found things tough in recent years.

"It's been a real struggle," he added. "I've tried to play my way through. I've had moments and glimpses where I thought: 'OK, this is OK.'

"But on the whole, probably three-and-a-half years out of the last four have been pretty terrible for me and that's kind of took its toll.

"I kind of got a bit tired. It kind of ground me down to the point where I kind of lost the love for the game.

"That's why in January, I snapped my cue just in temper, in frustration. I don't really want to feel like that, so I've taken time out. I am just gonna try and fix what I think is the problem before I come back to play serious snooker again."