Ronnie O'Sullivan breaks the Internet as he explains the real reason why he is wearing new mustard shirt

Ronnie O'Sullivan has addressed the popular new shirt that he wore during his Tour Championship quarter-final win over Ali Carter on Wednesday.

'The Rocket' is generally known for combining a black waistcoat and long-sleeve shirt, or occasionally a white waistcoat and black shirt.

O'Sullivan doesn't usually deviate from that in major tournaments, given World Snooker's strict dress code - which is why fans were shocked and pleasantly surprised to see him don a completely different coloured shirt for the opening session of his clash against rival Carter on Wednesday afternoon.

The reason behind the choice of shirt was speculated by many snooker fans watching the ITV broadcast, with theories ranging from leaving a tea bag in his pocket or dying a white shirt with darks, all the way to it being a shirt designed by the tournament's sponsors, Johnstone's Paint.

And there were plenty of arguments as to the exact colour of the shirt, with one fan even going on to the Johnstone's Paint website to try and find an exact match.

On the baize, 'The Rocket' wasn't at his absolute fluent best in the early stages of the match, but capitalised on errors from Carter and went into a 5-0 lead.

He hit breaks of 81 and 92 in frames six and seven to further extend his advantage, before 'The Captain' finally found his touch with a break of 141 in the eighth to at least give him slim hope heading into the evening session.

But any hope was soon extinguished by O'Sullivan, who hit breaks of 62, 54 and 67 to win 10-2 and progress to the semi-finals.

And after the match, the 48-year-old finally addressed his change of attire on social media - while confirming the actual colour of the shirt once and for all.

Taking to X (Twitter), he simply wrote: "Mustard is the new black."

The post racked up over 2,000 likes in under 30 minutes, with one fan writing: "Where can we get one?"

Another said: "The colour of champions, well done bud."

A third wrote: "Everyone will be wearing that soon!"

And another fan cheekily asked: "Put a dark sock in the white wash Ron?"

The seven-time world champion also addressed the shirt in his interview after the match, explaining to reporters: "Where we put all these stickers and badges on different shirts at different tournaments, I have literally ruined every black shirt I have got.

"This is the only one I have left in the wardrobe. I thought I would give this one a good seeing to - this will be knackered by the end of the season I suppose."

O'Sullivan will play the winner of the ongoing quarter-final between Zhang Anda and Gary Wilson in the last four in Manchester.