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At the time, he said it was the best night of his life. It was May 2, 2016 and Mark Selby had just sealed his second World Championship title only 13 minutes after his beloved Leicester City were crowned Premier League champions.

The Jester from Leicester was all smiles as he posed for cameras with a Foxes flag and the Crucible trophy, before embracing his wife Vikki and one-year-old daughter Sofia.

But beneath the surface, the world of the world champion was caving in.

‘Vikki said she came to the table to greet me and rather than being excited, I stared through her as if she wasn’t there,’ recalls Selby. ‘She said I didn’t really celebrate. She noticed I was going through it then.

‘I spoke to the doctor and we watched the footage back. He said, “By your body language and how you were acting, you were definitely going through it without even knowing”.’

A few months later, Selby was prescribed anti-depressants. However, it took him another five years before he went public about his battle with depression. That came last January after losing in the quarter-finals of the Masters, when he posted on social media that he had suffered a ‘relapse’ with his mental health.

‘From out of nowhere, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I wasn’t enjoying anything,’ he explains. ‘I didn’t really have a life. I was locking myself in the house.

‘Not even doing anything with Sofia. Not really being a father figure. Not being a good husband. I was basically just living and not doing anything.

‘Vikki kept saying, “You need to speak out and try to let people know” but I didn’t feel brave enough at first. I think I would have probably broken down.

‘Hence why I did it on social media. Once I actually did that and people said, “Brilliant for you to speak out, it helps so many people”, then after that I felt like I could talk

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