Shaun Murphy was terrified and left fearing for his life after claiming to have been spiked with ketamine on a snooker night out. The reigning Masters champion has detailed the scary ordeal and thanked his late manager for coming to his rescue.
Murphy and a number of top snooker players were celebrating in Antwerp following a 2008 pro-am competition in the Belgian city when a late-night bash was thrown for them. The 2005 world champion had to be excused early, however, later discovering he had been spiked with the Class B drug.
“There were a number of players on this particular night out,” Murphy explained to The Sun. “The promoter had thrown a big party in this bar. I don’t think I was the only player who was attacked that night. I was in a real bad way.
“I have never taken drugs in my life. Didn’t know what ketamine was. But that’s what it was. It was awful. I have no doubt that that could have been the end of me. Had it not been for my dear friend Brandon Parker, who I was with that night and sharing a room with, who pretty much nursed me through the night.
“Got me on a plane the next day home. The worst bit about it was we had a 24-hour turnaround and we had to go to China for the Shanghai Masters. It was an awful experience.”
Parker, one of snooker’s top promoters and talent managers, passed away in 2020 at the age of 55 following a battle with kidney cancer. His heroics prevented the situation from becoming even more severe.
Though Murphy has since settled down, he believes he “gave a few years of my career away probably to the pub” and nights out with the snooker elite were fairly common in the past.
“Going back to being a young boy, food and – as soon as I was old enough to – drink became my crutches,” Murphy added. “You know, you would celebrate with food and drink – and you would commiserate with food and drink.
“In snooker, living on the road in a competitive world in which I have grown up in, you are always doing one of those two things. You are either always celebrating or commiserating.
“Food and drink was the thing that I went to first. It didn’t matter who I had in my corner at the time. I have had plenty of people who have been on Team Murphy over the years. Friends, drivers, coaches and road managers. We’d always, following a big win, say to each other, ‘Right, where are we going for food?’
“Or following a bad loss, we’d say: ‘Where’s the nearest Irish bar?’ And that was a trend.”
Gone are those days though, as Murphy prepares for the 2025 World Snooker Championship, he is aware that elite athletes can no longer compete at such a high level while drinking at such regularity.
“But I don’t do what I used to do when I lived in Manchester post-2008 for a good few years,” he continued. “Me and my mates would be out at least four nights a week on it. Like really go out. You know you cannot do that and be a professional sportsperson at the same time.”