The pair had a bitter encounter in a World Championship second round match at the Crucible in 2018.

O’Sullivan fluked a snooker before barging into Carter as the pair passed by the side of the table. Carter continued to play his shot with a wry smile on his face.

Back in his seat, O’Sullivan said: ‘That’s for being Mr Angry. You shoulder barged me earlier, I thought I’d give you one back.’

Carter replied: ‘Thank you, it’s very nice of you.’

O’Sullivan replied: ‘Stop being angry then.’

Match referee Paul Collier intervened, telling the pair to get on with the match. ‘Yeah, I’m cool. Cool as a cucumber,’ O’Sullivan replied.

Carter went on to win the ill-tempered match 13-9 and celebrated with plenty of fist bumps.

Their rivalry has now flared up again and World Snooker will investigate O’Sullivan’s remarks.

‘He needs to sort his f***ing life out. I’m not going to skirt around it any more, tip-toeing on eggshells around someone like that. He’s a f***ing nightmare,’ he said.

‘Playing snooker against someone like that is a nightmare. He’s not a nice person. It’s not a nice vibe he leaves around the table.’

Ronnie vs Hossein Vafaei

One of snooker’s most unexpected feuds flared up between O’Sullivan and Iranian player Vafaei, who didn’t mince his words when he qualified for the Crucible for the first time in 2022.

‘I like him a lot, I am his fan, I love what he does but sometimes he’s disrespectful, he’s not good for the game,’ Vafaei said.

‘I think he should retire, to be honest with you. He should retire and then the younger generation make the game bigger.’

O’Sullivan played down the comments at the time but brought them up the following year ahead of their second round meeting.

‘Hossein Vafaei… the man who said… what did he say about me, I can’t remember?’ Asked O’Sullivan on Eurosport.

Pundit Alan McManus replied: ‘I think he said you should retire.’

‘Has he been saying much this year? I think he’s learned to be quiet. Don’t rattle my cage!’ O’Sullivan said.

‘I love it when they give me stick, I love it, it turns me on, I get off on it. I need it to fire me up so I’m hoping someone says something, so I can have a reason to perform.’

O’Sullivan wiped the floor with Vafaei, winning 13-2, and the pair made it up afterwards.

These two outstanding snooker players have had some memorable battles on the baize. But there’s been plenty of needle too.

Their meeting in the Scottish Open final in December 2020, played behind closed doors in Milton Keynes because of the Covid-19 pandemic, stands out.

Bizarrely, when Selby potted the pink in frame four to go 82-25 ahead, O’Sullivan refused to concede the frame and started playing for the final black.

With fake crowd applause being piped in, O’Sullivan had to be informed by the referee the frame was over.

And in that silent atmosphere, both players accused the other of gamesmanship.

Selby claimed O’Sullivan was chalking his cue too loudly to put him off his potting. ‘He knew exactly why he was going it… I’m too long in the tooth for his antics,’ the Jester said.

Later, O’Sullivan got his own back by complaining Selby was making a noise with a water bottle when he was at the table. O’Sullivan asked: ‘Any chance you cannot do it when I’m on my shot?’

At that year’s World Championship, Selby said O’Sullivan was being ‘disrespectful’ for smacking the cueball too hard when snookered.

Selby has also blasted O’Sullivan for not turning up to player meetings – yet not holding back when it comes to savage criticism of how the sport is run.

O’Sullivan vs the next generation

This was far from O’Sullivan’s first rant during the Masters tournament. After thrashing Shaun Murphy 6-2 in the semi-finals, the 48-year-old took aim at snooker’s up-and-coming players.

‘I feel a lot younger round the table than I do when I play these young players. They look old! Their brains are quite slow so, for me, I feel like my brain is pretty quick around the snooker table, which is enough,’ he said.

‘Yeah, they need to get their act together because I am going blind, I have a dodgy arm and bad knees. And they still can’t beat me!’

In another interview after that semi-final, he said ‘I’m just playing absolute filth and still managing to win.’

This lack of quality coming through the ranks may help O’Sullivan win more tournaments but it’s obviously a bugbear.

Back in 2020, he made similar remarks: ‘When you look at the standard of play and the younger players, they aren’t that good.

‘They’d maybe do as half-decent amateurs, well actually not even amateurs. They are so bad.

‘You see them play and I think to myself, ‘I’d have to lose an arm and a leg to fall out of the top 50!’

‘That’s why people like me, John [Higgins] and Mark [Williams] are still hovering around because how poor that end of the game is.’

O’Sullivan vs World Snooker

As snooker’s biggest genius and most marketable name, the authorities that run the sport must wish O’Sullivan was more of an ambassador.

But O’Sullivan certainly isn’t afraid to tell it how it is, leading to strained relations with the World Snooker Tour.

That was evident when he ignored WST chairman Steve Dawson as he was presented with the Masters trophy on Sunday night.

In March last year, he said: ‘Listen, snooker is in a bad place, it’s in trouble. This needs at least another £50million a year just to make it a proper tour.

‘When you look at the numbers, it’s bad. When you look at £10m prize money for 25 events across the year for 128 players, it’s never going to be good.

‘It needs at least to triple that to make it work. Maybe you do need some proper people like Liberty [in Formula One] or someone with the vision to bring it up to date.

‘You look at the people actually managing the game, they are not the brightest sparks either. So you can’t see them digging themselves out of it.

‘But you don’t have to be Einstein. It is probably in the worst place it has ever been. The image of the sport, it’s a bit like a pub sport now.’

Dawson replied by saying O’Sullivan’s remarks were ‘misguided’ and ‘damaging’.

The WST boss added: ‘He often compares snooker to golf and tennis, but I would challenge him as to whether for his part he elevates the sport and acts as a role model like a Rory McIlroy or Roger Federer.

‘We are striving to take snooker to a higher level, but we need the players to be ambassadors in public, and to communicate any concerns they have through the right channels.

‘Comments like those from Ronnie this week are damaging to us as a sport – and they’re unfounded.’

Ronnie vs Venues

Another rant last week came at the expense of the Masters venue Ally Pally, beloved of darts fans but less so of snooker stars.

‘I just don’t like this place, I find it disgusting,’ O’Sullivan said of a venue where he receives vociferous support.

‘Everywhere is dirty, cold, I’m freezing. I have to sit here in my coat. Everywhere you go, you’re going through car parks, there are bins.

‘I don’t know if you’ve seen up there, there’s food and stuff and it makes me feel ill to be honest with you.

‘I’m a clean freak. When I come here, it gives me the heebie-jeebies and I can’t wait to get out of here. I’m sorry, that’s just how I feel.’

The Ally Pally isn’t the first venue to attract his ire – a few years back, O’Sullivan described the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley as a ‘hellhole’ which ‘smelled of urine’.

He later joked: ‘Every day in Crawley is a day lost in my life.’