Mark Williams insists his eyesight issues are bad and getting worse, despite some questioning just how serious his eye problems are.
The 50-year-old has been speaking about deteriorating eyesight, considering surgery more than two years ago.
He was vocal about how bad his eyesight had become at this year’s World Championship, revealing that he was booked in for lens replacement surgery in June.
‘I’m seeing about three or four of them [balls] at the time,’ he said after beating Wu Yize in the first round at the Crucible in April. ‘I tried playing with contacts but it’s very difficult, very uncomfortable on the eyes.
‘I’m booked in June 12 to get lens replacement, so hopefully if everything goes ok that can postpone my career for another four or five years.
‘In the last six months I’ve noticed they’ve gone a lot worse than they have been. I’ve held off for as long as I can. I knew the day was going to come when I had to do something about it, so I’ve booked in.
‘It would be funny if I do really well here, what do I do then?’
He then did do well there. Very well.
The Welshman beat the likes of John Higgins and Judd Trump to make it to the final, where he lost out to Zhao Xintong.
Since then he has become the oldest ranking event winner in history, beating Shaun Murphy in the final of the Xi’an Grand Prix.
This has led to questions over just how bad his eyes can be if he is still playing at such a high level, but he insists they are not only in bad condition, but also deteriorating.
‘They’re getting worse! Worse every five, six months I can notice them getting worse,’ he said.
‘I have been doing stuff on a practice table with Lee Walker to try and play in a way where it helps my eyes out a bit. Because when they [balls] are close now and if something is really close to going, I can’t see if it goes or not.
‘I’ve done it a few times now, it’s cost me frames where I don’t think it goes and then the other player gets on the same shot and he just pots it. It goes easy.’
Former pro Anthony Hamilton had lens replacement surgery and it did not go well for him, believing it brought forward the end of his playing career.
Williams has postponed the operation and is worried about gambling on the surgery, which is meant to help his snooker, but could hinder it.
‘I’m afraid to get it done,’ he said. ‘I postponed it now. I paid my deposit. I postponed it three times. I’m supposed to go in November again. I postponed it again until January. But I’m just scared because if I do it and it doesn’t go well, that’s the end of my career.
‘For some reason, even though I’m struggling with my eyes, I’m still doing alright. I’m still getting to the latter stages. I’ve won a tournament this year at 50.
‘Probably getting to the final of the World Championship against Zhao Xintong probably done me in a bit because I was having it done a week or two after that. By getting to the final it’s put me off a bit and I just keep postponing it.
‘If my form really goes downhill and I can’t win a game, I’ll get it done. I just can’t bring myself to do it at the minute. It’s one of them, what do you do? If I have it done I’m not going to be playing any better. I’m not going to play any better than I am, even if I’ve got perfect eyesight.’
There have been doubters, with Ali Carter telling Metro earlier this season: ‘No, he loves winding people up. Nothing wrong with his eyes.’
At the recent Champion of Champions, the likes of Neal Foulds on punditry duty and Mark Selby, who Williams played in Leicester, also suggested the issues weren’t as bad as the Welshman is suggesting.
In a typically Williams response to these doubts, he said: ‘Honestly, I couldn’t give a s**t. I never worried about people questioning me.
‘I read online that there’s nothing wrong with my eyes. Who cares what other people think? I don’t. I don’t care. All I can say is I don’t wear glasses every day for the fun of it.’
Williams gets his UK Championship campaign underway on Sunday evening against Dave Gilbert, a tournament he has won twice but not since 2002.
Since that triumph 23 years ago, he has been past the quarter-finals just once, and he says there is a simple reason for that.
‘It’s one of the great tournaments,’ he said. ‘The city of York is brilliant. I haven’t done really that well there but it’s just a nice place to go.
‘The reason you don’t do well at tournaments is because it’s hard. There’s so many other players there trying to win that tournament and it’s very difficult.’