Ricky Walden is enjoying his best season for years and is relishing every second of it after coming through seriously dark days, when he thought a back injury was bringing his career to a premature end.
The 39-year-old is a three-time ranking event winner and former world number six, but the back injury he picked up at the end of 2016 saw him slip away from the top of the game.
Walden had not been past a quarter-final since 2016 thanks to his back problem, but after extensive physio work he has overcome the issue and is back to his best this season, reaching the semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Open and German Masters.
He is back to number 18 in the world and feeling good again as confidence slowly returns.
‘The back is the main thing,’ Walden told Metro.co.uk. ‘I took a slump a few years back with the injury, it took a while to get mended and that’s a big load off my mind as well as physically.
‘To get back on the table pain-free is a huge thing, then it’s just confidence really, putting the time in and going step by step. It’s been a long road back to this stage but I’ve got loads more to work on.’
The bulging disc that Walden suffered was painful, but it was the consequences of the injury rather than the problem itself that caused the most pain.
Ricky couldn’t spend much time practicing, which meant performance dipped, but also gave him far more time to worry about how this was all impacting his career and allow other bad habits to creep in.
‘It was more mental than physical in the end,’ he explained. ‘It wasn’t like I couldn’t walk, the back was just injured, I couldn’t do a lot of hours. It would tighten and spasm, it wasn’t like it was excruciating or debilitating.
‘It was more mentally that I knew I was gone. I couldn’t play, couldn’t practice. I went through sleep problems, really struggling to sleep.
‘I’d go to bed at 10pm trying to get an early night for practice, wake up at 1am and just be awake. I’d be sat downstairs on my own till 6am just worrying, thinking my career’s done.
‘I’m never usually worried about money, but I was then because I didn’t know where I was going to earn, it’s all I’ve ever done, where do you pay the bills? It was all that kind of regular dark stuff that you’re thinking.
‘I couldn’t get hours on the practice table because I was in pain, I’d turn up to a tournament under-prepared and lose to pretty much everyone for about two years. No disrespect, but people who I’d normally be putting away comfortably and I was getting beat comfortably.
‘I was nowhere any top 32 or 16 tournament so I had loads of spare time, but I couldn’t practice. I was drinking more, I didn’t have a drinking problem, but I’d be sat in the house having a few beers, no fitness work going on because of the back. I was just fed up, I wouldn’t say I’d given up but I was doing the wrong things more than the right things because my mind was telling me that I was done.
‘It was a horrible, horrible time and that’s why I feel so grateful to be out the other side and going back the other way now.’
Walden does not think he has suffered with depression, just feeling that he was going through a very bleak time and he sees the two things as different.
‘I wouldn’t call it depression,’ he said. ‘I just feel as though it was a tough time and that’s how it was. I think some things get labelled depression but it’s just tough times. Depression is another thing.
‘I was just feeling sorry for myself, feeling down, worried about my future, drinking too much. I wouldn’t call it depression, I’d call it a dark mind space.
‘With depression, even when things are rosy you can’t get out of bed. I felt as though, if I had depression the last thing I’d want to do is go and show up at a snooker tournament, whereas I’d have killed to be there, I was just unable to do that and I was worrying.’
The moment that caused the years of hurt for Walden was incredibly unfortunate, although he admits that there had been signs and that it was coming one way or another.
‘I was away on holiday at the airport,’ he said. ‘I had coffees in one hand and my little boy was asking to be picked up, I bent down trying to keep the coffees level and pick him up and I twisted funny and it went into spasm.
‘The flight home from America, by the time I got off at the other end it had seized up totally and the damage was done. I’d suffered with back injuries here and there before, so if it wasn’t that it would have happened at another point but that was the incident that did it.’
Walden gives great credit to his family and his manager, Lee Gorton, for helping him through the tough time and finding the physio treatment that has got him back to the table pain-free.
He is not just enjoying practicing and playing again, but also running regularly which he used to do before the injury and is producing both mental and physical benefits.
‘I’m back running again now which is a big confidence boost because I was told by so many physios that I’d never be able to run again,’ Ricky said. ‘I’m not as fit as I was, but I do 5km every couple of days and keep my hand in.
‘My game’s always been there on the practice table but that means nothing in the arena, you’ve got to work on the mind as well. It’s the full package of practice, mind, fitness, confidence, it’s all together. Even though I’ve done great to get myself back in position, I’ve got loads more to keep working on.’
Another trophy is next on the to-do list for Walden and he feels that if he can continue the progress he has made, then it is well within his reach.
‘Without a doubt,’ he said. ‘I’ve been close a couple of times this season. I’ve been dominating games but then at this level a couple of missed balls can turn the tide, that’s what’s happening at the moment.
‘As long as I keep putting myself in position I’m sure I’ll get my hands on a trophy. Just be patient, keep working and just be humble with the game, be thankful that I’m playing.
‘This feels to me like the start. I’ve been working so hard. I’m trying to get away from the ranking system and just focus on my game.
‘If I’m getting to semi-finals I’m happy. I’m not happy to lose semi-finals, but I’m happy to be there because I know if I keep getting to semis I’m guaranteed to make finals and if I get to finals I’m guaranteed to win trophies.
‘It’s stepping-stones, but it feels like I’m on a good path. I don’t feel like I’ve cracked it by any stretch, there’s loads more to go at, but where I’ve come from I’ve done incredibly to still be competing.
‘There’d be a lot of people who would have gone through what I’ve gone through and they’d be nowhere to be seen. It takes a lot of stuff to come back from that.’
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