John Higgins storms off and goes missing in middle of match live on TV as stunned commentators reveal ‘he’s leaving’

SNOOKER star John Higgins stormed out of his match against Zhou Yuelong mid-frame.

The Scot was trailing 5-3 with Zhou leading 19-0 and needing just one more frame to seal victory.

GettyJohn Higgins stormed off during the middle of his match against Zhou Yuelong[/caption]

X @eurosportThe Scot was not happy with the studio lighting[/caption]

Higgins appeared agitated as he spoke to referee Tatiana Woollaston complaining about the lighting.

The world number 11 appeared to suggest to studio lights were too bright, claiming it affected his game.

So he placed his cue on the table and walked out of the arena.

He was missing for several minutes, leaving the fans and commentators bewildered.

Higgins, 48, returned to play the remainder of the match but did not look very satisfied.

Zhou went on to win the frame to claim a 6-3 victory and set up a UK Championship quarter-final clash with Ronnie O’Sullivan.

The snooker legend shocked the York Barbican crowd this week by wearing trainers instead of dress shoes because of an injury.

Meanwhile world number seven Shaun Murphy and seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry have called for a rule change after watching UK Championship action this week.

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The two bemoaned the amount of “dead time” in matches and have come up with a solution.

Both have argued that matches should come to an end once snookers are required by the trailing opponent.

A player can attempt to snooker their opponent to force them into a foul if they need more points in a match than can be scored just through potting all the balls.

However, BBC commentator John Parrott and snooker star Ken Doherty strongly disagreed with the proposed rule change.

Parrott said: “Typical, two players who don’t know what a snooker looks like want to change the rules.”

While Doherty explained: “It’s called snooker for a reason, John, isn’t it?”