Earlier this month, O'Sullivan claimed that he would make a firm decision on the day of the draw, April 17, or the following day.

"I don't know yet," the seven-time Crucible winner said when asked if he will play. "I haven't made my mind up, I'll probably make a decision on maybe the 17th or 18th of April. I don't know when I'm due to play my first match, so I'm going to try and leave myself as much time as possible.

"I'd love to be able to go there and play, I'd love to be able to have the confidence to be able to get my cue out and go and play snooker. I just need to give myself as much time as possible to see where I'm at with it, and see whether it's something I'm going to be able to do."

But the Daily Mail claim that O'Sullivan will not withdraw from the World Championship, where he has been drawn against bitter foe Ali Carter in the opening round, and he intends to take to the Steel City stage.

O'Sullivan snubbed Thursday evening's Masters-style Champions Dinner, honouring past Crucible winners, with Kyren Wilson, Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis among the 12 former victors set to attend.

But he is expected to travel to Sheffield on Thursday to attend the Green Carpet ceremony and pre-tournament media day.

Those are the traditional warm-ups for snooker's biggest event of the year and a signal of intent from O'Sullivan ahead of his match with Carter, beginning on Tuesday and finishing on Wednesday.

In 2013, O'Sullivan sat out the entire season before returning at Sheffield to win the World Championship. But at the age of 49 and with a stronger pool of players at the Crucible this year, many would view an eighth title as his biggest-ever achievement.