Ali Carter will take on Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Crucible after scrapping through two qualifying games with an ‘excruciating’ neck injury.
The Captain beat Ian Burns and He Guoqiang to make it to the Crucible, with his 10-8 win over Burns a struggle as he dealt with serious pain in his neck.
He battled through it, though, and will make his 21st appearance at the iconic theatre, taking on his old rival the Rocket in the opening round.
Carter could have missed out on the blockbuster clash, though, saying that the pain was so bad that he considered withdrawing from his clash with Burns.
‘If I had gone 6-3 behind, I was seriously going to withdraw, but I managed to keep myself in it 5-4, then I went on and played some decent stuff in the night-time, but I was in agony.’
He added after beating he 10-5 on Wednesday: ‘I really couldn’t tell you how it happened. It just came on to the extent where I literally had a coffee on Tuesday morning. I literally couldn’t move my neck at all. I couldn’t do anything.
‘At the moment, I can just about roll my neck round. But that stopped me shaking my head in my match, so it was a bit more of a professional attitude from me there
‘It impacts my sleep. Terrible. I have hardly slept for three days. Honestly. It was like someone giving you a Chinese burn but on your neck. I lay that way. I lay this way.
Carter and O’Sullivan don’t meet in Sheffield until Tuesday so the 45-year-old does have time to treat the problem.
‘I will go and see someone when I get back [home],’ he said. ‘I have Thursday and Friday to myself. I will get someone on the phone, don’t worry.
‘Honestly, as you all know, I have been through a lot in my life, this pain was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt. My mate drove me here and every time we went over a bump, I was going “Aaargh!”‘
Carter has won the Championship League this season and reached a couple of ranking semi-finals but says things going on in his personal life meant that he went to the qualifiers with little expectation, regardless of his neck pain.
‘Listen, I had already written this World Championship off to be honest with you,’ he said. ‘It is amazing, when you take the pressure off yourself what can happen. Last year I put all the pressure on myself and I played like a muppet. We will just see what happens.
‘It’s just stuff in my private life going on, which I can’t elaborate too much on. There are things going on and things are taking their time but will get sorted eventually.
‘If all of a sudden, if you have a little bit of a run in Sheffield, then it’s all well that ends well, isn’t it? Look at Kyren [Wilson], Jak Jones and David Gilbert, coming off the back of terrible seasons and [Stuart] Bingham, too, he was in the semis.
‘All four of them had done nothing all year. Then look at what Kyren has done since, so it just shows you what can happen.’
Carter was speaking before the first round draw was made but was asked about the prospect of playing O’Sullivan, saying: ‘No comment really.’