NANCY SINATRA once sang that boots were made for walking - but Ronnie O’Sullivan couldn’t wait to get them off his injured ankle.

The Rocket eased past Ben Woollaston 6-2 at the Coral UK Championship this afternoon, replete with a pair of Paul Smith shoes, as he set up a last 16 game with Matthew Selt.

O’Sullivan had been forced to don boots - “I had nothing else to put on” - after breaking his ankle while running in an Essex forest and the four-time UK champion admitted he had found them cumbersome in his first two matches at the York Barbican.

“Those blue ones were doing my head in,” he said. “These shoes are great. I feel really nice in these, really comfortable.

“They are not boots. They are black and they go with my socks and trousers. I feel like a human again.

“It feels nice to have shoes on. I hate wearing boots. They are all right with a pair of jeans but not with a dinner suit - especially blue ones.

“I had nothing else to put on so I felt ‘as long as it is getting me round the table, it will have to do’. There is a point where you want to feel the part not walking round like an odd-ball.”

O’Sullivan was not in vintage form, save for a break of 104 in the sixth frame, but still had little trouble dispatching Woollaston after the pair had been tied at 2-2 at the mid-session interval.

He finished the match with efforts of 44 and 84.

On his injured ankle, which at one point led him to speculate whether he would withdraw from the tournament, O’Sullivan added: “The first two rounds, the foot was really bad. Today it felt much, much better.

“It was the first day where I felt I could walk without worrying whether I was going to fall over. I had total confidence in it so I did not have to think about it.

“I was thinking about the game. It is still a bit sore, because there is swelling all around it, but I have been doing some exercises on it, which has told my brain it is strong enough to hold up.

“It’s just the twisting and turning I am not 100 per cent with. It’s so much better.”

The 38-year-old revealed he had talked with sports psychologist, Dr Steve Peters, during the interval and was pleased to still be in the competition, despite being unable to hit his high standards.

He added: “I didn’t really settle in the first four frames but I managed to get it to 2-2 and I was pleased to come through in the end.

“It’s about getting your mind right and I did. I turned it round at the interval and felt a bit more settled.

“He (Peters) told me a couple of things that were going on and he was right. I just had to go out there and put into action.”

He added of his display: “It was all right. It wasn’t brilliant. I am not going to lie, you have all seen what I am capable of and the highest standards I can reach. Unless I reach that - like the semi-finals against Ding in the Champions cup and the way I played against Judd in the final, the way I played in Wales and the way I played in the Masters - that’s the kind of form I like to play.

“It’s there and I can do it day after day once I get going. It’s the consistency. Unless I am hitting that, I am always going to be a bit hard on myself.

“(But) I am pleased that I have won three matches against three awkward opponents.”

O’Sullivan hit the headlines earlier this week for blasting the four table set-up at the Barbican, suggesting that snooker’s top dogs consider “getting another venue”, but he was far happier after the Woollaston clash.

“It is much better,” he said. “The tables are playing so much better. They have obviously re-covered them and that’s how they should play. They are playing really well now.

“The atmosphere was much better today with the four table set-up. You are better off playing in the afternoon than the evening. In the evening, you expect the atmosphere to be a bit more charged but it is never going to be like that with four tables.

“In the afternoon, it all feels a bit more relaxed and chilled. The atmosphere is a bit more fitting for the time of day.”