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Ronnie O'Sullivan says he'll never be close friends with his Class of 92 contemporaries John Higgins and Mark Williams. The Rocket faces Higgins in a second-round battle of the veterans at the World Snooker Championship. It is the 80th time the pair have faced and the seventh at the Crucible, having contested the 2001 final and two semi-finals in 1998 and 2022. Yet while the duo are now in their 34th seasons on tour, O'Sullivan insists he doesn't speak much to Higgins or Williams away from the table.

"I think Mark and John are better friends than I am with them," he explained to TNT Sports. "I don't really get close to anyone on the snooker circuit, because I don't really hang around tournaments. No one sees me, I'd rather be down the gym or go running, or go to nice restaurants, while a lot of the players hang out with each other." Though he is arguably the greatest snooker player of all time, the seven-time world champion says he enjoys getting away from the sport. O'Sullivan doesn't watch snooker in his own time.

The 50-year-old added: "I don't want to talk about snooker, I get bored talking about rankings, about what world snooker is doing. I have zero interest in snooker as far as that's concerned. I choose to separate work from my off time."

Williams has made it clear he has no plans to be the first of the Class of 92 to retire. The Welshman, 51, has plans to play on the amateur circuit with his 13-year-old son Joel in the future, promising he will be at the Crucible until at least the age of 55.

O'Sullivan has also said he has several more seasons in him just yet as he aims for a record-breaking eighth World Championship. But the 23-time Triple Crown title winner insists he sees snooker solely as a hobby nowadays, and wants to try his hand at pool one day.

He added: "My career is based around [whether] certain things off the table suit me. I'm not going to be turning up playing for ranking points, playing this game for a living, put it that way. I enjoy my life, I like to do stuff away from the table.

"I play snooker for a hobby, it has to fit into my life, and feel very comfortable for me. I couldn't do the hard slog that most of the players seem to put themselves through on tour, it has to be worth it for me. Off the table, and I have to look at it and go 'if I have a terrible year, does it matter'?

"It becomes a bit more like a job as well, you have to look at it like that. If it feels like the juice ain't worth the squeeze, then I probably go into China eight [8-Ball] and just see what I can do with it, if I can get good at it. It'd be a bit of a buzz."

O'Sullivan also fancies venturing into the world of business once he retires from snooker, saying: "I'd just go into other things, away from sport totally. I'd like to see myself involved in a team of some sort.

"I don't want to be doing something on my own in the second phase of my career, I find it's really hard being on your own. I'd like to be involved in a team, with a business or something where you're all kind of pulling your weight."