Ronnie O’Sullivan has said he was “worried” about returning to snooker, fearing he would “implode” and “have a meltdown” in his first competitive match since January.

O’Sullivan, 49, beat Ali Carter 10-4 on Wednesday in the first round of the World Championship, a competition he has won seven times.

However, his participation in the tournament was only confirmed late last week after he went three months without playing competitively following an incident at the Championship League in January in which he snapped his cue and threw it in a bin.

“I lost the buzz for playing because I wasn’t able to execute shots,” said O’Sullivan. “I was bailing out of shots. I was having to play a different game that I didn’t enjoy and it didn’t feel like I could express myself, so it got really tough.”

Asked if there were times in the past week where he thought he had made a mistake about returning to snooker, O’Sullivan said: “Yeah, totally.

“I thought ‘what am I doing coming here, exposing myself, [potentially] imploding out there, having a meltdown?’ All that went through my head. I told [sports psychiatrist] Steve Peters that and he said ‘I’m coming – I will get you through the first match’.

“I was quite a bit scared coming and playing. It’s a daunting venue to play at anyway but it’s about getting on the bike again and playing and I’m really proud that I’ve done that.

“Even if I had lost, it didn’t really matter. I made that breakthrough. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

More to follow.

• Ruthless O’Sullivan cruises into Crucible last 16
• Watch: World Snooker Championship – Trump leads Zhou, Selby v Woollaston
• World Championship: Schedule, results & BBC coverage