Betfred World Championship: Mark Selby on his battle with mental problems

Title-holder and former world number one Mark Selby, who earlier this season revealed his battle with mental problems, took time out from his preparation in his bid to win a fifth Crucible crown at this year's Betfred World Championship, which starts on Saturday.

I'm feeling okay now - and a bit better than I have been. I feel like I'm turning the corner a little bit which is good.

I didn't play in the last two tournaments just to give myself a break and sort of focus on myself, but I'm looking forward to the World Championship.

Practice has been okay. I've been back playing for about the last week now and I'm slowly getting back into it. It has been good and I've got the buzz again to play. Having a break sometimes and coming back fresh is good, so I've got the hunger to play again which is nice.

Winning a fourth World Championship last year was fantastic. Even sweeter than before considering the way I'd lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-finals the year before. Had I beaten O'Sullivan I'd have fancied my chance of winning the final in 2020, so that was hard to take at the time. So to go back the following year and win it again was amazing.

To be in the similar small category to Stephen Hendry, who has won it seven times, O'Sullivan (six wins), John Higgins (four) and Mark Williams (three) it's great really.

It was great going back to having a crowd at the Crucible last year, not just in the final but in the earlier rounds too.

I'll always remember my first Crucible triumph in 2014. Beating O'Sullivan, the greatest player ever to have picked up a cue, was the icing on the cake.

Winning it for a fourth time was obviously special. All I ever wanted to do growing up as a snooker player was to become world number one and world champion, so I once I achieved those goals I was happy. If I'd managed only one win at the Crucible, I'd have been content, so to have won it four times was beyond my expectations.

But it would mean everything to lift the trophy for a fifth time. There's no reason why I cannot win it again, but the standard of snooker these days is higher than it's ever been.

Being staged over more than two weeks, this is the hardest tournament to win physically and mentally. But I'll go there trying hard as always and we'll see what happens.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams inspire me because I'm 38 years old while they're still challenging for titles and at the top of the game past their mid-40s.

As long as you stay healthy and fit and have the hunger for success, there's no reason why you can't win this title. It's just about whether I'm still enjoying playing the game as much.

I'm looking forward to going out there on the opening morning and being introduced as world champion. The last few months have been quite tough off and on the table mentally, so it will be good to walk into the Crucible auditorium and have something to smile about.

I feel in a slightly better place mentally. I'm not out of the woods yet but I definitely feel as if I'm going in the right direction. Since January I've been working with a psychiatrist from London who has been brilliant. He has seen the improvements in me, I've slowly started seeing the improvements in myself and so has my wife Vikki, so hopefully we're going the right way.

It was tough to talk about it publicly because I feel like I've being going through it for quite a few years. I'd been bottling up and just getting on with life and not really letting many folk now.

Obviously Vikki knew that I'd been struggling for quite a while, but to actually come out and say it was tough. And that was the reason it took me so long to admit to my problems.

But once I made it public, straight away I felt as if half the battle was won. I feel like I can be myself now and not have to put on a front. And if I'm not feeling great and people ask me if I'm okay, I can actually say no now. Before I was saying yes and basically just lying really and bluffing it. Now if I'm not having a great day I can tell people and they obviously know why.

Hopefully my speaking out will help other sufferers too. Lots of people have contacted me to say it's helped them. It just shows that it's nothing to be afraid of and that it's okay not to be okay sometimes.

Taking a break from snooker has helped. The doctor actually advised me to try to keep playing if I could and that it might help me take my mind of things. But snooker is a hard enough game if you're mentally right, so if that's not the case the sport is even tougher.

I gave it a go initially but wasn't feeling too good, so I feel like it has helped to have a few weeks away from the table and do some work with the doctor.

Right now I'm not looking beyond my opening match on Saturday. I realise now that there's more to life than just snooker, so I want to go to Sheffield and just try to enjoy the experience if anything. If I win, great. But the most important thing is your health and taking care of myself and that's what I've been working on.

My family have been great and Vikki has been a rock ever since I've been with her. Whenever I've been down, she's always been there, and so have all my close friends and family. So I've got all the right people around me, which is nice. Now I've come out and spoken about my problems, everyone is rallying around to help me.

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