Ronnie O'Sullivan shrugged off his shock defeat to David Grace in the second round of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open and insisted: "I really don’t care any more."
O’Sullivan has frequently expressed his lack of desire in recent seasons despite coasting to a record-equalling seventh world title in Sheffield earlier this year.
And he issued a withering assessment of his current place in the sport after blowing a two-frame lead to lose 4-3 to Grace, a former UK Championship semi-finalist.
O’Sullivan told the BBC: "The job ain’t worth the stress and the hassle. Sometimes a loss is a blessing in disguise, it just allows me to do other stuff.
"I quit mentally about eight years ago and I just take what I can from the sport. It’s a good platform for me, allows me to do other stuff and gives me a lot of freedom.
"As far as winning goes or cementing my name in the game there isn’t enough good stuff in the game to get excited about.
"One day I’ll wake up and get excited and play a good tournament, but if I don’t I don’t really care any more."
It had looked like being a routine afternoon for the seven-time world champion when he secured a 2-0 lead, including a break of 62 in the opener.
But the Rocket barely potted a ball in the next three frames as he went completely off the boil, with Grace capitalising thanks to breaks of 57, 94 and 64.
Grace, 37, who has never won a ranking title, offered O’Sullivan a lifeline with a series of poor shots in the sixth frame and eventually it led to his opponent forcing a decider.
But he wouldn't be denied as O'Sullivan failed to fire again in the final frame and the Leeds player secured a place in the round of 32 with two good scoring visits. It was the first time he had ever won a frame against O'Sullivan.
"I got over the line in the end, I made hard work of it," the 37-year-old from Leeds, who reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship in 2015, told Eurosport.
"You don’t normally get a second chance. When I missed the first chance to win 4-2 that’s when normally the snooker gods don’t forgive you, but they were on my side today.
"It was going really bad at 2-0 and I’m proud that I managed to find the cue-ball control to make a couple of breaks in the middle of the match to give myself a foothold.
"When you play the legends they get better when they go in front, they don’t normally give you a foothold so it was nice to be able to give myself a chance."
Grace will play Tian Pengfei in round three after Tian made a break of 55 in the decider to beat Martin Gould 4-3.
The upset follows Judd Trump's exit yesterday to Cork's Aaron Hill.
Trump and O'Sullivan had competed in the final of the event for the last three years, with the former coming out on top on each occasion.
