Ronnie O'Sullivan: 'I used to isolate myself from people'

Five-time world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has revealed that he used to deliberately isolate himself from people.

The 37-year-old, who has had drug-related problems in the past, has claimed that he would suffer from depression when things were not going right in his game.

"That's why I never used to go out, that's why I used to stay on my own," O'Sullivan told the Daily Mail. "I'd be with someone and I just wasn't present. I didn't have any interest in what they had to say.

"They might tell me their mum had died and it wouldn't register. I wasn't on their bus. I just had my own thoughts going on in my head, so it was impossible."

O'Sullivan enlisted the help of sports psychologist Steve Peters in 2011.