Vafaei beat Barry Hawkins within the first spherical on the Crucible final 12 months earlier than shedding 13-10 to Mark Williams.
An damage wrecked the beginning of this season however an intensive physio programme acquired him again enjoying, though he then had a poor run of outcomes following his return.
“With my damage, I took two or three months [out] and after that I misplaced my type,” he added. “It was a shoulder drawback, it was hurting my fingers and all of the nerves on my left aspect.
“It was robust to get again my type and to search out one thing and the struggles began from there.
“I am below a lot of strain. I am not having a great season. Lots of people have been like ‘the place is he? what’s he doing?’. They’re pondering I’ve stopped enjoying snooker.
“I’ve had a tricky 12 months mentally, personally, and every part.”
However there was some encouragement on the desk as earlier than his success at qualifying, he beat Williams and Zhang Anda to succeed in the quarter-finals of final month’s World Open the place he was crushed by Trump.
Nonetheless, he stated information from again dwelling meant he was usually not targeted on snooker.
“You get a nasty textual content within the day and you’ll’t focus in your job. How can I focus?” stated Vafaei.
“No-one is aware of how robust it’s however hopefully it will likely be over quickly, then the protection comes again to my nation.”
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