Ronnie O’Sullivan has provided a concerning health update following his World Snooker Championship first round victory over China’s Pang Junxu on Saturday.
The Rocket revealed that not only has he been battling an illness over the past few days but that his “legs and limbs have gone” too.
The 47-year-old was nonetheless too strong for Junxu, sealing a 10-7 win with an 81 break in the final frame as he goes in search of an eighth World Championship title.
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After the match, O’Sullivan told Eurosport: “I’m relieved it is over, I have a bug, I have been hanging all day. My legs and limbs have gone. I was so desperate to get over the line every frame. It’s a horrible feeling.
“I was ill a few weeks ago and I’ve got it back, I couldn’t even stand up, I’m in absolute bits. Maybe I should hang around the Crucible and give everyone my bug!”
The Englishman went on to tell the BBC that he was hoping to emulate Stephen Hendry, who won the World Championship with a broken arm in 1994.
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(Image: Mark Stephenson/Action Plus/REX/Shutterstock)
“I felt shaky, heavy and desperate. I just wanted to get over the line,” he said. “Sometimes you have to get through those situations.
“Stephen Hendry won the World Championship here with a broken arm. I’ve got a bit of a bug. It feels like glandular fever, which I had a long time ago. It just saps all the energy out of you but you fight – it’s a World Championship isn’t it?”
O’Sullivan will face the winner of Ding Junhui and Hossein Vafaei in the second round, with four more victories needed to break clear of Hendry and win an eighth title – which will be the biggest tally in the modern era and the joint-second biggest of all time.
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