The wait goes on to see whether Ronnie O’Sullivan will play at the World Snooker Championship this year but Stephen Hendry reckons the Rocket will land at the Crucible.
Very little has been seen of O’Sullivan in 2025 so far, with his only competitive snooker coming at the behind-closed-doors Championship League in January.
A visibly frustrated Rocket ended up smashing his cue at the Leicester event and pulled out of the Masters later that week, opting not to defend his title at Alexandra Palace.
While the 49-year-old confirmed during the event in London that he intends to keep playing, he has not played in a tournament since.
He has not qualified for next week’s Tour Championship, meaning the next time we could see O’Sullivan with a cue in his hand will be at the Crucible next month, but whether he will be there or not is yet to be seen.
The seven-time world champion has never missed a trip to the Crucible since his debut in 1993 and Hendry does not think he will be breaking that record this year.
‘I’ve got a sneaky suspicion he is going to [play],’ Hendry said on the Snooker Club podcast.
Then Hendry could not quite make his mind up on whether the Rocket would be able to soar back into the big time and come away with the greatest prize in the sport.
The Scot’s initial thoughts were that it would be too much to ask, even of the legendary Englishman who took the whole 2012/13 season off before returning to win the World Championship.
‘He obviously did it before, had a year off but he was a much younger man and there weren’t the players around that are in such form,’ said Hendry.
‘There were still great players but I think there’s more great players capable of winning it. There’s six or seven easily you could count and maybe more that are capable of winning it.’
However, the romance of that picture he painted seemed attractive to Hendry, who felt it would be a stunning story for the Rocket to return and oust a string of players who have all lifted trophies this season while he has largely sat on the sidelines.
‘What a story it would be,’ he said. ‘All these players: [Kyren] Wilson, [Judd] Trump winning all these tournaments. [Neil] Robertson back, [John] Higgins back, [Mark] Selby.
‘Ronnie just decides he’s going to turn up at the Worlds and wins it. It would be an unbelievable story and he’s that good.’
Now having fully talked himself into O’Sullivan being able to pull off this stunning achievement, Hendry recalled the advice he gave to the Rocket 12 years ago when he claimed the 2013 title.
‘I remember when he did it before and had a year out. He messaged me and said, “Do you think I can still came back and do it?”‘ Hendry recalled.
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‘I said, “Of course you can. All you need is a month’s solid practice.”
‘It’s the same this time. I don’t know what his cue situation is because he smashed his last one, but if he had a month behind closed doors, practicing, putting the work in, getting himself sharp then of course he can. He’d be one of the top two or three favourites to win it.’
The bookmakers still have O’Sullivan among the favourites to win the World Championship for an eighth time this year.
Betfair have the Rocket, world number one Judd Trump and defending champ Kyren Wilson all joint-leaders in the betting at 7/1.
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