World number one Mark Selby is hoping he can start to get back to his best after recently spending seven weeks nursing a toe injury. The 34-year-old is yet to reach the quarter-finals at any ranking event so far this season but he is hoping to put that right in the coming weeks. Selby, who is priced at 4.75 to win the 2017 UK Championship, has been struggling with a toe injury and was unable to play any snooker for seven weeks after being forced to wear a protective boot on his foot. The Englishman’s injury ruled him out of the Six Red World Championship in Thailand this week, while he also missed the Riga Masters and the World Cup. ‘The Jester from Leicester’ did take up his place at the Hong Kong Masters, where he lost his opening match against Neil Robertson, while he has since lost in the last 32 of the Evergrande China Championship and he crashed out of Paul Hunter Classic in Germany at the last-16 stage. Selby admits that his rivals already have the advantage of momentum this season but he hopes to get back up to full speed sooner rather than later.
“Everyone is a lot sharper than me so I wanted to get some matches under my belt,” Selby said. “I went to Germany because I was defending champion and because I haven’t played many matches this season. I was happy to get a few wins there and now I’m back on the practice table preparing for the upcoming tournaments. “I am playing catch-up a little bit. I’m practising hard at home, but match practice is everything and I haven’t had much. I need to play in as many tournaments as I can and over the season it will even itself out. I’m far from in-form at the moment. I really struggled in China and it was similar in Germany. Conditions were tough in both of those events because of the humidity, and that was a factor. I’ll work hard and hopefully things will change. “I’m not too worried. The toe injury was the longest break I have had for snooker for a few years. I enjoyed it because it gave me the chance to spend a lot of time with the family, which we don’t get often. But it’s back to work now.”
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