After a disappointing semi-final loss at The Crucible, Ronnie O’Sullivan hints he might be leaving the UK.

It wouldn’t be the World Snooker Championship without some Ronnie O’Sullivan drama.

This time, “The Rocket” has threatened to leave the UK after crashing out of this year’s championship against Zhao Xintong, who’s fast-gone from a wildly talented prospect to arguably one of the best snooker players in the world.

There were some occasional flashes of brilliance from O’Sullivan. On a bad day, you know the 49-year-old will at least throw some jabs, even when it looks like he’d rather be anywhere except a snooker table. But when the second session left him trailing 12-4, it was obvious what the outcome was going to be.

Following the match itself, attention shifted to Ronnie. Would he have a meltdown? Was he going to announce his retirement? Or would he simply say nothing at all? None of these things actually happened — but O’Sullivan did make sure to stir up the media on his way out.

Defeated O’Sullivan Claims “I’ll be moving away to the Middle East”

Heading into this year’s World Snooker Championship, fans had been left guessing as to whether O’Sullivan would actually show up or not, having been inactive since January.

He did eventually make the call to play, but expectations were relatively low.

Even most bookies didn’t think O’Sullivan would win it, with Ladbrokes listing “The Rocket” at 13/2 just before the tournament started. If you use an odds calculator, this would have returned £65 from a £10, so not many people were brave enough to back a low-on-confidence O’Sullivan.

Everyone could see from the very first match that he was lacking sharpness, so the fact that Ronnie was able to make it all the way to the semi-finals is something of an achievement in itself and is perhaps reflective of a wider snooker problem: even at his worst, Ronnie is slogging his way to semis.

When speaking to the media after his loss at the World Snooker Championship 2025, Ronnie then threw out a few big statements:

“I’ll be moving away to the Middle East,”

“We’ll see how it goes, I might be back in six months,”

“I will still try to play snooker but I don’t know what the future looks like for me, really.”

Any snooker fans reading this should probably take it with a pinch of salt. After all, O’Sullivan does have form when it comes to making crashing statements in the aftermath of huge losses, most of which he never actually follows through with.

However, it wouldn’t be that surprising to see him take an extended break in the Middle East. This would at least allow the seven-time world champion to recoup and think about what to do next. One thing for sure, though, is that it won’t be retirement.

What’s Next for O’Sullivan?

Ronnie is still dreaming of that eighth world championship.

He wants it. Fans want it. And it probably will eventually happen.

But until then, it’s obvious that O’Sullivan needs another break.

As he said himself, this will probably involve a temporary move to the Middle East.

Interestingly, Ronnie has gone on record several times in support of growing snooker in the Middle East and even opened a snooker academy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last year, so a move there is clearly on the cards for him (O’Sullivan is a beloved runner, though, so he might find the heat over there is a bit too much).

In terms of when the 49-year-old will play next, nobody knows for sure. As always, Ronnie is unhinged at the best of times, so all you can do is sit back to sit back and see how it plays out.

There’s a chance he’ll be at the Shanghai Masters this July — which O’Sullivan is currently scheduled for — or he might not return at all until next year’s Crucible. That’s the Ronnie way.

As for permanent retirement, there’s no chance of that happening.

An unconfident and (according to X) “passed it” O’Sullivan has just made it to the semi-finals of the World Snooker Championship while playing some of the worst snooker we’ve seen from him for a while. If he can get back on-form and find his ‘A’ game, then finally winning that elusive eighth world championship won’t be too much of a stretch.

Conclusion

It’s been a tough few years for Ronnie O’Sullivan.

A split from his actress fiancee Laila Rouass along with a reported anxiety problem have left the snooker “GOAT” falling in-and-out of love with the sport.

When you top it all off with his fresh semi-final loss to Zhao Xintong at The Crucible and the fact he’ll be turning 50 in December, it’s easy to understand why he (once again) wants to step away from snooker. Die-hard fans of O’Sullivan shouldn’t be panicking, though, because we expect him to be back sooner rather than later, even if does make a move to the Middle East.