Ronnie O'Sullivan has dismissed claims he plans to retire imminently from professional snooker, but he's "not enjoying" playing the sport at the moment despite winning an eighth Masters title last week.
The snooker icon has been the envy of his peers over the past 12 months with O'Sullivan going unbeaten on British soil since the English Open back in October.
In that time he's won the UK Championship and Masters, taking him to 23 Triple Crown titles for his career.
But despite enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, O'Sullivan has cut a gloomy figure in interviews stating he wants to take a break from the game.
Ronnie O'Sullivan is not enjoying his snooker at the moment
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The world No 1 sparked fresh concerns that he was set to walk away from the sport once and for all following comments he made after beating Zhou Yuelong at the World Grand Prix on Thursday.
Such was O'Sullivan's downbeat demeanour, both Ken Doherty and Neal Foulds felt the writing was on the wall for the 48-year-old to call time on his career after this season.
O'Sullivan has now dismissed suggestions he could end his snooker career soon.
However, he has admitted that he's struggling for motivation to continue playing at the highest level.
"I'm always having to find reasons to play, saying I'll do it for this and that," he told ITV. "I've never thought I actually really want to do this.
"There have been moments I've been flying. And it's been great: And you think: 'I'm on top of the world'.
"There hasn't been enough good form. I feel like I've been playing on autopilot.
"I've been lucky to have had the last 10 or 12 years since I started working with [sports psychiatrist] Steve Peters.
Ronnie O'Sullivan won his eighth Masters crown last week
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"I feel very fortunate for that, but you get to my age and again there's always a reason to keep playing.
"There's lot of reasons to incentivize me to keep playing, but I'm not sure they're worth it anymore.
"I'm not saying I'm going to retire, because everyone says when are you going to retire, I never said that word, so don't quote me on that.
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Ronnie O'Sullivan has no plans to retire yet
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"But I'm not enjoying my snooker, no.
"It's hard to walk away from it when you are still winning.
"That niggling voice in the back of your head, that makes you think if I can get my game half right, I'll stroll tournaments."
