Ironically, the season began so promisingly for the man affectionately known as the Rocket. Only a simply unstoppable John Higgins prevented him from defending his Grand Prix title.

His runner-up finish in Preston was followed by an easy defence of his Premier League title. After topping the round-robin stages of the seven-man league, the Essex enigma went on to destroy his arch rival Stephen Hendry 6-0 in the final.

That was as good as it got for Ronnie this season. With the exception of The Masters, where he lost 10-9 to John Higgins in the final, he has failed to win another match.

As if losing 9-8 to Mark King at the UK Championship was not bad enough, he has since been beaten 5-1 by Ian McCulloch in Newport. Even worse still, he suffered a whitewash by James Wattana in China only a few weeks ago.

After a hugely successful 2004/05 season, during which O’Sullivan won five titles, he threatened to quit the game.

On the back of a disappointing 2005/06, where he is likely to end up with only one title, it is surely not beyond the realms of possibility to reason that this may be the last time we see him on the green baize.

He seems more interested in poker and pool these days hence his decision to skip the Malta Open because it originally clashed with a nine-ball contest.

If the O’Sullivan who was on show at Sheffield in 2004 turns up again this year, then the others might as well wave the white flags now.

When all is well in his world and all cylinders are firing over the longer matches, Ronnie is to all intents and purposes unbeatable.

That being said, on current form, that eventuality is very unlikely to occur. There is also the question mark surrounding the state of his wrist since he was in a fair amount of pain at The Welsh Open.

Moreover, with all the histrionics this year – towels over his face during matches and telling the press he is bored of snooker etc – it is even more doubtful that he can keep his focus where it needs to be for all 17 days of the Championship.

He may well overcome Dave Harold and either Joe Perry or Ryan Day but the smart money will be on Higgins to edge out O’Sullivan for the third time this season.

Prediction: Quarter-final departure.