Ronnie O'Sullivan pledges to open a food bank as he eyes challenges away from his snooker career

The Rocket, who made history on the baize earlier this year by winning a record-equalling seventh world title at the Crucible, is currently recovering from a tennis elbow injury and isn't expecting to return to action for at least another month.

O'Sullivan has often spoken about his love-hate relationship with the sport and even admits that allowing TV documentary makers to film his every move during the fairytale World Championship run had a negative impact on him.

He told Eurosport's The Breakdown podcast: "The only reason I did go to the dark places was because we filmed a documentary so I was forced to actually try because the cameras were following me everywhere. I just had to give it blood, guts and whatever there was, and that was what I had to do. That is why I hated it because I promised myself I would never go there again."

The 46-year-old is always looking for challenges away from snooker and his latest idea is inspired from the time he helped out at food bank back at Christmas.

O’Sullivan told The Climb Podcast: "I woke up the other morning and thought these last weeks since I won the World Championships, the first week I was knackered and a bit low and didn’t feel like doing anything. Then I came out of it, but it wasn’t as good a payback as I thought, I’m not feeling the same high as when I won the first, or third of fourth one.

"That’s not a good sign. I thought, what will actually make me happy and give me a purpose in life? I thought, I know what I need to do, I need to open up a food bank, for people who can’t get the basics in life, a bit of food!

"That’s probably the next thing I want to do because I worked with one in Walthamstow. I was helping there on Christmas Day, it goes all year round it’s great what they do, but I was there on Christmas Day and I just looked at the people there and what they do, the people who come there and I just felt good being there, I felt good being around those people. The whole thing about it felt right, to be part of it.

"It takes people giving their time for free, with no reward, other than them just wanting to give something back. For me now I need challenges like that and things that make you feel good about yourself."

On taking on new challenges, he said: "It’s very dangerous for any sportsman to just invest totally in the sport. I see it with snooker players, they invest so much in snooker that when it’s over, it’s like, “Who am I? What can I do?”

"I don’t want to be that person who finishes his career and just feels lost. It’s so important to have a purpose in life. For me I’m always looking for the next purpose and it can never be snooker.

"It’s too demanding, it’s too difficult, it’s too on your own, it’s too fickle. To try and invest your whole time and energy and it can be taken away from you – not because of anything you’ve done, but the competition might be better or you have a bad back – so you think, I can’t play, so what do I do? It’s difficult to make that transition, I think."