John Higgins is nervous about snooker return
Former World Champion John Higgins admitted that he is nervous and uncertain as to the reaction he will get from players and fans when he returns to action in the European Tour Championship on Thursday 11 November.
Higgins will take on Joe Jogia in his first match of the four-day tournament following his suspension after he brought the game into disrepute.
"I'm a bit nervous about how the players are going to take to me. It's just something I'll have to deal with," Higgins told the BBC.
Higgins was banned from the game for six months after he was set up by the News of the World newspaper.
Higgins was in attendance during a meeting where undercover reporters posing as representatives of an illegal betting syndicate offered Higgins money to lose frames.
The player was found not guilty of match fixing, but he was banned for not reporting the incident to the snooker authorities.
The Scotsman has lost his number one ranking to the current World Champion Neil Robertson since the ban, and his return after the match-fixing scandal is sure to cause some ill will from some of the players on the circuit.
"When the result came through, I was like, 'Right I'm going over to Germany and I'll show them all', but now as the day gets closer, it's like going to the dentist. You make the appointment and as it gets nearer you think, 'oh no',” said Higgins.
The snooker player has stated that he was innocent from the start, but the player is aware that his reputation is tarnished after the incident.
"It's cost me a great deal and it's a stigma I'll probably never, ever get rid of. I hope I will, but I'm not sure. I just want to get back playing and maybe people will see me for what I am."
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