Every star athlete must inevitably acknowledge when their career is at its end, but for Shaun Murphy, an illustrious stay in snooker nearly finished all too prematurely.
The 2005 world champion topped the billing at the Players Championship in February and dominated Ali Carter 10-4 in the final to clinch his first ranking title in more than three years. The doubt that came as a result of those struggles almost convinced 'The Magician' to give it up for good, but his Wolverhampton win helped remind Murphy of what he had to offer the sport.
"There have been a lot of moments of self-evaluation, really asking if I am on the right path," Murphy told The Yorkshire Post. "Do I have a career in snooker any more? Is it worth pursuing because you spend a lot of time away from your wife and children? Is it worth it?
"Probably at the UK Championship [in November 2022] I saw some green shoots of improvement, and that was enough for me, to show I was on the right path. The form that I showed at the Players Championship in Wolverhampton, if you could bottle that we would all be a lot happier."
The 40-year-old underwent gastric sleeve surgery in May 2022, a decision he felt was affirmed by the words of legend Steve Davis. Though he was referring to another player at the time, the six-time world champion made the point that snooker's most successful stars tend to 'have that thing [being slimmer] in common'.
"There’s a lot of gastric surgery you can have and this is probably the most extreme. I wish I had done it years ago," he continued. “I have battled with my weight all my life, and at the back end of last year’s World Championship my weight had ballooned to the heaviest I had ever been. It was definitely affecting my game, definitely affecting my health. - and mental health - and I just thought 'you know what, I have to do something about it.'"
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It wasn't strictly Davis' remarks that convinced Murphy a change was needed, and the Englishman was already booked in for surgery prior to those comments. He holds no regrets over his decision, adding the change has 'completely changed his life'.
If the Players Championship was a sign of how his performance on the baize has been affected, there may be more good things to come in the near future. Murphy will be among the eight participants at the Tour Championship in Hull next month before he seeks his second world title at the Crucible Theatre.
Aside from a fourth appearance in the Sheffield final in 2021, Murphy has failed to move past the second round in five of the last six World Championships. However, he's confident his best will be enough to push boundaries provided he can keep up current form: “If I can take the form I had in Wolverhampton with me to Sheffield, I might spend less time in the commentary box and more time on the table.”
