• Snooker

Murphy feels Higgins faces fight to win over public

Shaun Murphy has backed John Higgins to rise to the challenge when he returns from his suspension at the UK Championship at the start of December, but feels the Scot faces a battle to win over the public.

Higgins is currently serving a suspension after being found guilty of bringing snooker into disrepute following the match-fixing affair. He was cleared of the more serious charge of match fixing and was praised for his honesty by hearing chair Ian Mill QC, but Murphy feels the three-time world champion will have to cope with the mud sticks scenario.

Murphy believes the players will treat Higgins with the respect they always have but is aware the public may have a different view of things when he returns at Telford at the start of December.

"I think as far as the players and officials and everyone associated with the sport is concerned, they will welcome him back with open arms," Murphy said. "As a bloke, I know him and his family well and I am pleased to see him back where he belongs at the top of the game.

"As far as the public are concerned, I think he is going to face an uphill battle. Your man in the street reads his paper, not everything in papers is true, and it is going to take a bit of convincing people that he is innocent - as he has been proven."

Murphy is convinced Higgins has the mental fortitude to emerge stronger from the scandal that rocked snooker.

He said: "I have thought about it and how I would feel about it in that situation and I would find it difficult. But John is a three-time world champion - he has won every major tournament and is one of the best snooker players that has ever lived and because of that he has immense strength of character and I am sure he will rise to the challenge in the same way he has risen to every other challenge."

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