It is whilst eating a salad lunch, which appropriately contains some rocket, that Ronnie O’Sullivan casually slips in an announcement that would be genuinely seismic for his sport.

“This year I played 11 tournaments; next year I’m only going to have to play three,” he declares. “I only want to play a few games to keep a bit of interest. I’m bored at home. Maybe three or four tournaments a year. Low key ones, where there is no media and no press. So I will miss the Masters, I will miss the World Championship and I will miss the UK [Championship].

“I don’t even want to play in the World Championship - all the press and media they want you to do. I’m not here for that. It’s alright for young kids who have never won the world title and it’s their dream. To me it’s overrated. It’s great when you win it - a week later it sinks in. I’ve won it five times mate. It ain’t worth the blood, sweat and tears to me now. That tournament? Probably not for me anymore.”

A few minutes earlier and O’Sullivan had also been delivering me the most genuine, heartfelt and yet sometimes hilariously blunt nutritional advice.