Hot on the heels of my earlier post highlighting speculation as to extension of the deadline for the UK Championship, it appears as though the long-running saga has tonight reached some sort of resolution as @grovesnooker has tonight tweeted:
“Good news. @ronnieo147 may be playing again. Contract clarified. Uk and international in china entered.”
As has been commented upon, to say that the contract has been clarified is an interesting choice of wording, though as ever we can only speculate as to what has been agreed between the parties, at least until any official statements are issued by either Ronnie or the governing body anyway.
While I am sure that a lot more detail will emerge from the mainstream press over the next couple of days, judging by the early response on Twitter, the initial reaction seems to be that his fellow players and fans alike are pleased to hear that the contract has now been signed and that O’Sullivan will apparently soon be back in competition, potentially making his comeback in the International Championship, which kicks off on 28th October 2012.
Update: Leading snooker journalist Hector Nunns has tonight tweeted the following:
“O’Sullivan signs and will play in UK. Read in Times, Mirror, Express etc. Requested 11th-hour meeting with Hearn. No major concessions”
Are you surprised to see him back so soon or was this to be expected? I tend to favour the latter, but then I did not expect him to be absent from the Premier League this season so it was a difficult one to call with any certainty.
Of course it remains to be seen how many events the reigning world champion chooses to enter, even with the contract signed as he retains the right to pick and choose events as he wishes. I certainly cannot imagine him rushing to enter many of the upcoming PTC events, but come the ‘majors’ I would be surprised to see him not part of the tournaments.
More will surely follow…