The five-time world champion didn’t appear to be in the best of shape as he provided a peculiar two-minute assessment on camera.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has posted a video of himself offering an unusual commentary of the recent events surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The former world number one – lying on a sofa and offering a cryptic synopsis of the ongoing crisis – repeatedly referenced China’s influence following the coronavirus outbreak in the post that originated on popular Chinese social media site Weibo.
O’Sullivan, at times presenting his opinions in what appeared to be an angry or sarcastic tone, said: “Just want to say what a fantastic job you (China) did.”
This season’s Shanghai Masters champion continued to praise the nation in its overall response, while highlighting the aid it has given to other countries including Italy.
“Giving your experience on how you can beat this invisible sort of thing that’s flowing around the world – a great inspiration, China, for all your efforts.”
“It was fantastic what you have done with Italy – sending out all the masks and suits – you will forever be in the Italian’s hearts.”
Meanwhile, Neil Robertson has been giving his views on the current situation and underlining the difficult period that could lie ahead for some of snooker’s lower ranked competitors.
With no action currently on the calendar, the Main Tour players are temporarily out of a job – which doesn’t have much impact on the higher ranked stars but will heavily affect those nearer the bottom of the pecking order.
There are provisional plans to stage the lucrative World Snooker Championship in July, but that will of course depend on a number of external factors.
As a result, Robertson has kindly offered to help out any player who is financially in need over the next couple of months.
The world number two said: “Should any struggle or need advancement for their prize money at the worlds, then they can pay me back as soon as they get paid from World Snooker. It’s no problem.”
“If a player I know came to me and said, ‘Look, I’m really struggling to pay my bills, are you all right to front me as a guarantor for the first round of the worlds?’ Well, I’d do that no problem. Absolutely.”
Jason Francis, the World Seniors Tour chairman, has been separately raising funds for the NHS in the UK, as players with access to snooker tables take on a blue-ball challenge.
With viewers encouraged to donate to the charitable cause, the players attempt to pot as many blues as they can off the spot from the D-area, from a total of ten opportunities.
Stuart Bingham and Kyren Wilson are among some of the major snooker stars to have taken part so far.
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Ronnie is unquestionably one of the top 1-2 or 3 snooker players ever to wield a cue, and rightfully so, he began in earnest when he was about eight years old I believe. Over the course of his star-studded career he has displayed a penchant for commentary and aberrant behavior befitting a spoiled child and entertained us to no end. Now that he realizes another world championship, or even a tournament win is possible only if he can muster the passion necessary to do so,it appears as though he needs to remain relevant. If he wants to pontificate about the state of the horrendous Chinese behavior he’s fully capable of doing so in an articulate manner rather than his extemporaneous rambling that cannot add to his overall credibility. This was sort of a blah-blah rant that didn’t have enough smoke to attract attention.
Correct he does spout a lot of total nonsense