Ronnie O’Sullivan sets strict retirement timeline with snooker icon fearing issues ‘can’t be fixed at this stage’

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has set himself a strict retirement deadline, if his poor form continues. The seven-time world champion has been out of sorts of late, at least compared to his normal lofty standards. Ronnie O’Sullivan has set himself a retirement deadline Credit: Getty He says he has no chance of winning the Wuhan Open despite being in the quarter-finals Credit: Getty O’Sullivan, 50, won three consecutive games in Wuhan, China, to place himself in the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open. That run included a last-16 win over Stephen Maguire. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! However, with Mark Selby as his next opponent, the Rocket does not believe he has any chance of winning the trophy on Sunday. That’s because O’Sullivan believes he is playing “hit-and-hope” snooker, adding his technique is “rubbish”. After beating Maguire on Wednesday, he said: “I was happy to win a match. “Then I won two matches, I was over the moon. To win three for me is a miracle at the moment, so [I have] probably gone as far as I can go now. ”Listen, if anyone plays well against me, they win, doesn’t matter where they’re ranked. If they play poorly, then I have a chance, but I don’t expect from now on anyone to play poorly. ”My game is just very, very poor. I’m not playing to a good enough level. My technique is just so rubbish. I don’t have a clue where the balls are going. To be honest, it’s hit-and-hope snooker. Most read in Sport CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS Inside Ronnie's colourful career FROM his lightning breaks to blasts at officials, Ronnie O'Sullivan has fired snooker into the spotlight. ”I’m just delighted to have won three matches. I can’t believe it really… “I’m not modest, I’m telling the truth. I have very, very bad technical issues, I don’t even know where the balls are going. “I know they’re going in because… somehow. I don’t even know, I can’t even explain it… O’Sullivan set himself a hard deadline on hanging up his cue if he failed to sort his form out when speaking at the Shanghai Masters last month. He said: “I don’t really have much hope to regain the kind of level I was at before. “I know that I can play that well, but when you have really bad technical issues, if you can fix them, then obviously I would be much more optimistic about the future. ”But I just don’t think they’re able to be fixed, especially at this stage of my career. “Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I could have had the time to do it, but I just don’t really have the time to see it through, maybe. ”I’ll give myself 18 months maybe, until the end of the 2028 World Championships, to see if I can get somewhere back to how I used to hit the ball and if I can hit the ball half decent I can still win tournaments. ”But as it stands, it’s pretty ugly out there for me and maybe ugly for you guys to watch me play.” O’Sullivan’s last big snooker title came in January 2024 at the World Grand Prix, while his most recent world title came in 2022. Comment now