John Higgins admits that ban was the worst moment of his career
Former world number one and three-time World Champion John Higgins has admitted that his ban from snooker was the toughest period of his life.
The Scottish player is expected to make his return to a major tournament at the UK Championship on 4 December.
Higgins won the European Championship Tour event in Germany and was runner up in last week’s European Championship tour event in Prague. Both competitions are considered to be minor tournaments and the Scot will make his long anticipated return to snooker
in a major televised tournament.
Speaking to the BBC about his six month suspension for misconduct, Higgins said, "It's been the hardest six months of my life, but it's great to get my cue back out and be talking about forthcoming events, as there were times when you maybe think that might
not happen again—it's given me new focus."
Higgins was cleared of the more serious claim of match fixing, but the Scot knows that his once squeaky clean reputation has been tarnished.
"It's something I'll have to live with the rest of my life—nobody needs to tell me. I hope the dark days are over, I just want to concentrate on moving forward. You don't know what's going to happen, you just hope and pray that the judge makes the right
decision—he made it and we've all got to move on," Higgins said.
The player admitted that he may always be remembered over the match fixing incident, but he accepted that this was something he would have to live with. “Some people out there will never change what they think but everybody has their own choice and I've
got to respect that," he said.
The player lost his number one ranking to World Champion Neil Robertson during the suspension and Higgins will go into the UK Championship as one of the favourites, after a number of promising performances since his return.
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