John Higgins drops retirement hint ahead of the World Snooker Championship

The four-time world champion led Mark Allen 4-1 during their opening round clash but eventually bowed out 10-7 at the Central Convention Complex in Manchester.

Higgins is still ranked has high as 10th despite his frustrations at his lack of silverware since winning the last of his 30 ranking titles against Ronnie O'Sullivan at the 2021 Players Championship.

His last major final came at the 2022 Tour Championship at the end of a season in which he'd also finished runner-up in the Northern Ireland Open, English Open and Scottish Open but despite retaining a high level of performance, his dwindling self belief has been regularly identified by pundits and fans as his greatest stumbling block.

After defeat to Allen, he said: "I should have been in front today, lost a bad frame when I definitely should have made it 5-2 I think. Then it is 4-4, but I think Mark played better tonight. Again, I missed two or three unforgivable balls at this level that you cannot afford to miss.

"My long game was non-existent as well. At this level, it's not good enough. It's not good enough against the best players. I just need to dust myself down a couple of weeks before the worlds, try to get some good practice in and go there and give it a final go maybe."

The Legendary Wizard

The 48-year-old is one of the 'Class of '92' icons and hasn't been outside of the world's top 16 since he first soared into it at the end of the 1994/95 season.

By this time he'd already picked up his first four ranking titles and went on to collect a further 27 to take his tally to 31 from 55 finals which puts him third on the all-time list behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (41) and Stephen Hendry (36).

His four world titles (1998, 2007, 2009, 2011) could have been more had he not lost four finals including his last three in 2017, 2018 and 2019 while he also picked up three UK Championships (1998, 2000, 2010) and a pair of Masters crowns (1999, 2006) to take his Triple Crown titles to nine, which is joint fourth alongside Mark Selby but behind O'Sullivan (23), Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15).

Only the Rocket (1,254) has compiled more than his 993 centuries while he's also second behind O'Sullivan (15) for 147 breaks having managed an incredible 13 during his glittering career.

Even as recently as this year he became the oldest player to make a maximum in professional competition, having set the record at the 2024 Championship League when he was aged 48 years and 268 days.

'Demons' ending the dream?

Higgins will be competing in a 30th World Championship this month but many feel he's been too hard on himself in recent years and needs to give himself a dose of self belief in order to end his title drought.

Back in January following Higgins' Masters exit to Allen, Eurosport pundit Alan McManus said: “Unfortunately, we’ve been seeing quite a bit of it in the last couple of years.

"Unravelling is a strong word, but John’s such a pro and has such honesty with himself. He would probably agree that he did unravel a bit in that match. Those little demons, the demon on his shoulder, are not allowing him to express himself throughout the match and as a consequence of that, he’s not winning."

Allen echoed similar sentiments after this latest victory over the Scotsman at the Tour Championship, saying: "I think he's actually being a bit too hard on himself," said Allen on ITV. "He's not playing bad snooker. Like I said, it is fine, fine margins. Three black balls and a real uncharacteristic foul by John. It's almost like he has to win one of these close games.

"I don't feel like we have to talk John up. He's a four-time world champ."