Ally McCoist taken aback by Ronnie O'Sullivan confession before World Snooker Championship

Snooker icon left football legend Ally McCoist gobsmacked by denying any psychological edge against his great rival during their epic encounters. Both snooker juggernauts proudly share the record for the most titles, with a staggering seven apiece.

Yet the 49-year-old 'Rocket' has cast doubt over his appearance at this year's Crucible showdown, having pulled out of several events already. In a candid chat with Scotland's football hero McCoist on , O'Sullivan opened up about Hendry’s influence on the game.

Despite acknowledging that Hendry’s style led to rivals' errors, he humbly dismissed the notion he ever unnerved the Scottish star in their heyday.

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"No, I don't think so. I don't think I've ever been the most confident," said O'Sullivan candidly. "I know I've got ability and I know that if I play good when I'm out there, I feel confident, but in the build-up, I have a lot of self-doubt. At no point did I think 'I've got this, I'm the man to beat'. I never, ever thought that."

McCoist was astounded by the snooker maestro's admission, responding: "That's amazing. Honest to god, Ronnie, I would never have thought somebody like yourself on the snooker table would have any self-doubt."

Reflecting on the evolution of his mindset, O'Sullivan shared: "I used to. As a kid, I was very confident and had a lot of self-belief in my technique. It was so rock-solid that I used to wake up and think, 'I'm going to be nine out of 10 today'. Then as I got later into my career, I got a lot of bad habits.

"Snooker is a very technical game, a little bit like , and it was really hard to get it right. So from 17 to now, I've always been plagued by inconsistencies through my technique not being as good as it used to be as a kid. I've kind of had to find ways to just keep going."

Despite O'Sullivan's candid self-evaluation, many fans would view his career differently. He's secured a record-breaking 42 ranking titles, including 23 Triple Crown victories.

However, O'Sullivan revealed that he felt most confident and happiest around a snooker table before turning professional. "The part where I felt invincible would have been from the age of 12 to about 16," he admitted (via ). "I won a hell of a lot of amateur events, a hell of a lot of junior events. I was just relentless. I was like a machine. I just felt so confident.

"My first hero was Steve Davis, I modelled my game on him when I was a kid, just watching him on TV," he recalled. "Then Stephen Hendry came along and he just blew it all apart. A bit like Tiger Woods and Usain Bolt did. He just played a different game and we all had to follow his way of playing if you wanted to become a winner and a champion.

"Hendry was just fearless. He didn't have any safety game, he didn't need it. He was that good. Hendry's mindset was, if it's the first to 10, 'I'm going to make 10 80 breaks, so it doesn't matter what you do'.

"He had that confidence in himself just to clear the table. Then that puts a lot of fear into the opponent and you start getting easy chances left because your opponent's under. Hendry came along with that type of game, whereas Davis would make a 50 or 40 and play safe and that was enough at that time. But when Hendry came along, it wasn't enough."

The snooker legend discovered on Thursday morning that his first-round opponent next week at the World Championship - should he compete - will be two-time finalist Ali Carter.