Ronnie O'Sullivan has called for World Snooker to hire a full-time mental health professional to provide support to struggling players.
The seven-time world champion has spoken openly about his battles with depression despite enjoying an illustrious career and wants more to be done to prevent others going down similar paths.
O’Sullivan was speaking as a pundit during Eurosport's coverage of the Masters, which he withdrew from before the tournament began due to a mix of fatigue and pressure that reached a head during a Championship League defeat by Robert Milkins in Leicester last week.
The Rocket, who broke his cue in frustration, was joined in the studio by Mark Selby following his victory over Ali Carter when the discussion turned to mental health.
O'Sullivan said: "I think World Snooker should have someone like in football. In football they may have a masseuse sorting out injuries. In snooker they should have someone at the tournament employed if there’s someone struggling.
"For 10 minutes, if you need to come off the table and talk – I’m not saying everyone will go in there because a lot of players suffer in silence. I can tell. You just look at them and know they’re struggling.
"But they should have someone to go to and talk to. I think that’s so important.
"You have coaches sorting your cue action out, but really you need someone to just [help] unload a bit. I think it would really help the players.
"I know Shaun Murphy is part of the panel. I think they could find the money to employ someone full-time to be there for the players.
"If Mark Selby is struggling mentally, and I struggle mentally and John Higgins struggles mentally, then the other 124 are a million per cent struggling mentally. But you’re not allowed to.
"People say, ‘what’s the matter, you’re a snooker player, you’re getting paid this and that’. But it’s not about the money. It’s about pride in performance. You want to put a show on for the crowd. You want to put a show on for yourself. You want to play well and when you don’t, it can drive you crazy.
"And sometimes just a five to ten minute chat and I’m alright. I can go to sleep. I look forward to tomorrow, rather than going home and beating myself up."
O'Sullivan stressed: "The guy would be busy. Whoever they employed would be a busy man."
Selby, who defeated Ali Carter in the Masters on Monday night, added: "I’m OK at the moment. I’m seeming to manage it a little bit better.
"I was speaking to a doctor for about six months to a year and he told me how to control it a little bit more. The way he explained it is like losing a loved one. You’ll never get over it, but you’ll learn to deal with it better.
"Before it was all new to me. It hit me from nowhere. I’d been suffering for a while and not knowing. I was waking up and just thinking, ‘you feel crap some days, some days you feel good’.
"But he said it was a combination of that building up and sooner or later it’s like a bottle of coke, you shake it, open the top and it explodes.
"It hit me from nowhere, but working with him, I learned to deal with it a little bit better, but I’m sure it’ll rear its head again at some point. It’s just how I deal with it."