RONNIE O’SULLIVAN REVEALS INJURY BEHIND USE OF TRAINERS FOLLOWING UK CHAMPIONSHIP WIN OVER…

After sealing his place in the last 16 of the UK Championship, Ronnie O’Sullivan explained why he was wearing trainers to strut around the Barbican Centre in York. The Rocket began his tilt for an eighth UK title 30 years to the day from his 1993 final victory over Stephen Hendry, and won six frames in a row to ease past Anthony McGill into the second round.

Weird injuries happen all the time in sports. It’s usually in baseball, where this year Carlos Correa missed two months after fracturing a rib during a massage and Joe Kelly had to be scratched from a spring training start because he was on his feet for too long cooking Cajun food. Previously, Brian Duensing needed elbow surgery after he tweaked something while adjusting his chair in the bullpen and Jake Diekman sliced his hand while unpacking after a road trip because a mug he bought from the Cheers bar in Boston had shattered. Former snooker world champion Shaun Murphy had an injury to rival them all, though.

Murphy, a 37-year-old Englishman who won the 2005 World Championship, revealed this week that his recent absence from tournament play was due to a rather embarrassing injury.

“We were having Sunday dinner at home, me and (3-year-old) Harry were dancing around the lounge to Disney’s Great Hits,” Murphy explained to World Snooker. “I felt something go in my leg. I thought for a minute I had snapped my Achilles tendon, but the doctor later told me if I had done that I would have gone down like a sack of spuds.

“He said I might well have partially torn it and he advised me to rest it as much as possible, so I sat in the house for two weeks, doing my wife’s brain in! I had to pull out of the Paul Hunter Classic and I was relieved to be able to get back to the table last week for a few days. It’s not ideal preparation but I’m glad to be here and to get a win under my belt today.”

Snooker isn’t the most physically grueling sport, but you still have to be up on your feet and balance well enough to hit precise shots. Murphy, nicknamed “The Magician,” is back in action now, though. He advanced to the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters with a win on