Ryan Day intends to put down his cue and pull on the football boots this summer in the hope of rediscovering his best snooker next season, writes Joshua Richards.
The 36-year-old suffered a 10-3 defeat to John Higgins in the first round of the World Snooker Championship on Tuesday, bringing to an end a relatively disappointing season in which he has not been past the quarter-final stage at a ranking event.
His early exit from the Crucible means an extended period of time off and Day believes lacing his boots will improve his concentration when he eventually swaps from playing with one ball to 22.
“I’m going to work on my fitness a lot more over the summer, it’s something that has slipped over the last few years, that might be the reason why I’m breaking down concentration-wise more often than not,” said Day, whose brother Rhys won 11 Wales Under-21 caps.
“I used to play football quite a lot. It’s something that I’ve had to give up because of injury, but I think I might start again and risk it.
“My brother used to play, he was in the Football League for a long time and I’m no where near as good. It’s just for enjoyment.”
Day, from Pontycymer, trailed 7-2 from the opening session, losing the final five frames after the interval to leave himself with a mountain to climb.
And though the world No20 took the opening frame of Tuesday’s afternoon session, Higgins took advantage of some poor safety play from Day to win the next three and breeze through.
“It was a sound drubbing,” conceded Day.
“John made the most of my mistakes.
“I didn’t score enough, I had chances. Today was always going to be an uphill struggle, but I wasn’t at the races today.
“It’s possible to get back into the match and I had chances in the second and third frames, but I wasn’t there really.”
Watch the World Championship LIVE on Eurosport, with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
