'I’m very, very poor mentally and always have been in the game' - St Leonard's snooker star Mark Davis says he is the weakest player mentally on the World Snooker Tour

But the St Leonards potter hopes swapping Brighton for Belgium can bolster his resilience and catapult him towards the baize big time.

‘Battler’ Davis, the world No.45, went down 10-7 against 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy in his first round clash at the Crucible.

Davis has never won a ranking event since joining the tour in the 1990s and admits his dwindling mental fortitude has held his career back.

The candid 48-year-old, who finished runner-up at the 2018 English Open, said: “I’ve probably got the worst head in the game, to be honest – and always have done.

“I’m very, very poor mentally and always have been in the game. I’m very poor mentally and in terms of self-belief and self-confidence, but I’m better than I was.

“It’s definitely better than it was, without a doubt. I had so many years of horrendous thoughts, honestly – they were just so negative.

“I’m fine in general and pretty laid back – it was just snooker. I thought ‘I’m crap’ for years and years.

“It was hard to change that, but it has got better. I just don’t think I’ve worked hard enough on it over the years – I’m going to do more and spend a lot more time on it.

“At the end of the day, it’s so important. If you can’t do it in tournaments when it matters, then that’s all part of the mental side.

“It’s huge, and I think over the years people underestimated how important the mental side is to the game.