Ronnie O’Sullivan admitted he felt for Mark Allen after the Northern Irishman forfeited his match against Ali Carter at the World Grand Prix last week.

Allen conceded frame and match after missing a yellow, despite 11 reds being left on the table.

He came through his opening match against Mark Joyce in the Welsh Open, but Allen admitted he was in a dark place despite victory.

And O’Sullivan hopes World Snooker don’t punish Allen too severely after his decision to surrender the match last week.

“He’d obviously just had enough,” said O’Sullivan. “It’s not nice when you’re in that sort of place – he must have had something going on in his head.

“I hope they don’t come down on him too hard, because it was just a rush of blood.

“If you go back through the season, he has been one of the players of the season and we should focus more on that and give him a little bit of a squeeze.

“It will be interesting to see what happens there.”

Watch the Welsh Open LIVE on Eurosport and Eurosport Player, with analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.