Mark Allen considers retiring after 4-2 loss to Jordan Brown on his return in Belfast

Mark Allen says he is considering retirement from snooker after losing 4-2 to Jordan Brown in the first round of the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast on Tuesday 20 October, his first match since the World Championship semi-final in May. Asked by BBC Sport NI whether he was thinking of ending his career, the 40-year-old answered: "Yeah." He said he would not announce anything after a defeat, but that "something needs to change within the next six weeks before the UK Championship" for him to play there.

The match

Allen won the opening frame at the Waterfront Hall, Brown took the next two, and Allen levelled at 2-2. Brown then made breaks of 53 and 80 to win the last two frames, the BBC reported. It was Brown's first win over Allen, a close friend from County Antrim, and he called it "the least satisfying" win of his career. The world No 65 plays Michael Holt in the last 32.

Allen is the tenth top-16 player to go out in the first round in Belfast this year, after Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump and Mark Selby. Our Northern Ireland Open page has the draw and session times in Pakistan time, and O'Sullivan's 4-3 loss to Cheung Ka Wai is here.

Why he stepped away

Allen had not played since May, when he missed a simple black that would have taken him into his first World Championship final, then lost the deciding frame to Wu Yize, who went on to win the title. He has missed every ranking event since; we counted eight by mid-September.

He told TNT Sports he was in a "bad place" and did not "see a future with snooker in it". To the BBC he said the last three months had been "really, really difficult" and that turning up at all was "an achievement". He chose this match, he said, because he did not want that Sheffield semi-final to be his last, and Belfast, where his career began in 2005 and where he won this title in 2021 and 2022, felt like "a more fitting end if I do call it a day".

A career in numbers

• 12 ranking titles, including the 2022 UK Championship
• Former world No 1
• Northern Ireland Open champion in 2021 and 2022
• Professional since 2005

What happens next

The UK Championship, one of snooker's three Triple Crown events, is about six weeks away, and that is the deadline Allen set himself. Brown said he hoped his friend would carry on: "I have no doubt he will come back. Snooker is his love."

Every tournament date in Pakistan time is on our snooker calendar.