O’Sullivan may want to be at Brecel’s career stage again but he won’t be keeping his trophy following Sunday’s triumph. He revealed that he will be giving it away, as he always does with his silverware and memorabilia, jokingly declaring he is “preparing for death”.

He added: “I’ll be giving the trophy to my friend who is opening up a club here. It will be staying in China.

“I always give them away. My mate Paul’s got one, I gave one to a kid in the crowd.

“I’m not really bothered about trophies. I’ve sold quite a few of them – I don’t want any memorabilia left by the time I’m 70 or 80. I’m preparing for death – part of that is I don’t want no snooker stuff – waistcoats, cues, it’s all going to go.”