Mann thrilled to make Crucible debut

The Birmingham-based 24-year-old locked in his place on the big stage with a nail-biting 10-9 win over Thai showman Dechawat Poomjaeng on Wednesday, in the final qualifying round at Ponds Forge.

Now he awaits Thursday’s first-round draw, when along with the likes of fellow qualifiers Ding Junhui, Peter Ebdon, Ali Carter and Graeme Dott he will be paired with a top-16 seed.

Mann will be the only debutant this year.

At the age of eight, he was diagnosed with Perthes disease - a condition that rots the hip bone - and had to give up footballing ambitions.

But Mann found a passion for snooker thanks to dad Jeff, and the biggest win of his career secures a minimum £13,000 in prize-money, and a return to the venue where in 2007 he won Junior Pot Black.

“I used to play football when I was a kid and signed for Birmingham City - although I’m a Villa fan,” Mann said.

“I had some pains in my leg one day and we went to the hospital and had X-rays and they said it was growing pains. The pain never went away so we looked into it further and found out it was Perthes disease and I’ve had to have numerous operations on my hip, and they told me I could never do high-impact sports again.

“When I was bored in the house one night, my dad took me to a local snooker club and I’ve never looked back. I don’t really follow the football much anymore - when you support Aston Villa, you don’t want to be following that.”

Mann is relishing his opportunity now.

“You can’t argue, it is snooker’s Wembley. It doesn’t get much bigger than the Crucible, so I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

“I’m buzzing inside. I think I was always going to do some sort of sport and I’m glad it’s snooker now with this kind of feeling.

“My dad has remortgaged his house about five times to keep me going.”

At the opposite end of the experience scale, Ding is the qualifier every seed will want to avoid.

China’s former world number one has slipped down the rankings to 17th, which meant he had to play Crucible qualifiers for the first time in nine years.

He toppled 1995 World Championship runner-up Nigel Bond 10-2 to secure his place in the 32-man draw.

Just two seasons ago, Ding won a record-equalling five major ranking tournaments.

“They don’t want to play me. It doesn’t matter who I play,” Ding said.

Also advancing to the tournament were veteran Scot Alan McManus and fellow Glaswegian Anthony McGill, who beat Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby last year on a run to the quarter-finals.

Ebdon completed a 10-2 victory over Ian Burns, with the 45-year-old earning his 23rd Crucible appearance and first since 2013.

The 2002 title winner said: “I’m absolutely over the moon.

“It’s going to be wonderful and it means so much to me to be back this year.”

Ireland’s 1997 world champion Ken Doherty fell 10-6 to Welshman Ryan Day, 2006 winner Dott beat Mike Dunn 10-7, and two-time runner-up Carter saw off Dominic Dale 10-6. Another twice losing finalist, Matthew Stevens, fell 10-6 to rising star Kyren Wilson.