Gunnell vows to battle problems

Despite having the all-clear from a scan, Gunnell continues to be plagued by severe back pains.

And he fears that could wreck his chances of qualifying for the sport's latest ranking event.

"Mr practice has been desperate," admitted Gunnell. "I got a bit lazy after I lost to Mark King (in the UK Championships at the start of December) and didn't do anything."I came to do something a week before Christmas but my back was killing me. It's been troubling me for a few months but now I'm feeling it pretty much every shot.

"I convinced myself the x-ray would show up a problem with the vertebrae or a slipped disk - but it was clear. I'm just going to have to try and get on with it as best I can."

The 34-year-old from Telford will have to wait to learn of his first round opponent with Matthew Couch, Alex Borg and Paul Davies all battling over the weekend for the right to meet Gunnell in the final qualifying round.

And the county's top player admits he would be happy with his draw in normal circumstances.

"If practice is going well then it's the type of draw Jimmy Saville pulls out for you," he admitted.

"But I just don't know how my backs going to be and I've had few problems with cue tips. I put a new one on a few weeks ago and it felt like a fruit pastille on the end of my cue.

"I replaced that and had quite a few sizeable breaks in practice so that was more encouraging."