Four-time world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has revealed that he has been working as a farm labourer after taking time off from his sport.

The 37-year-old decided to sit out the rest of the season in order to spend more time with his children and try to control his depression.

"I've been cleaning out stables and pig sties, taking down fences, putting rubbish into barrels and clearing mud," O'Sullivan told The Sun. "It has been mainly manual work, also getting big bales of hay in to feed the animals.

"I was getting so bored I had to do something, and needed a goal to get out of bed in the morning. It has been kind of the opposite to what I was going through in snooker and I am really enjoying it."

O'Sullivan spends three days a week as a volunteer at a smallholding in Epping Forest.