RONNIE O’Sullivan will play Marcus Campbell in the first round of the World Championship – his first competitive match in seven months.

This afternoon saw the first round draw of this year’s World Championship take place and was broadcast live on TalkSport. The tournament starts on Saturday (April 20).

O’Sullivan, who announced his comeback to the game following a seven month break in February, will begin the defence of his crown against the world number 27 who beat Liam Highfield to reach the Crucible stages for just the fourth time.

It will be O’Sullivan’s first competitive fixture since losing to Simon Bedford in a PTC match in September last year.

The match will begin on Saturday starting at 10am as part of the tournament’s tradition for the defending champion to play on the opening day.

Four times world champion John Higgins will be looking for revenge when he faces the man who knocked him out of the UK Championship in December – Mark Davis.

There will be a repeat of the 2006 World Championship final between Graeme Dott and Peter Ebdon. World number one Mark Selby takes on debutant Matthew Selt.

Leicester’s Ben Woollaston will make play his first World Championship match against last year’s runner-up Ali Carter. Other debutants include Dechawat Poomjaeng, Jack Lisowski, Michael White and Sam Baird.

Poomjaeng, from Thailand, will face Welsh Open champion Stephen Maguire and White faces an all Welsh battle against two-times world champion Mark Williams.

Lisowski will play on the opening day against Australian Open winner Barry Hawkins and Baird who is the lowest ranked player in the competition, meets Stuart Bingham.

Judd Trump, who reached the final in 2011, takes on Dominic Dale and the new world number two Neil Robertson faces Robert Milkins.

Other matches include Ricky Walden vs Michael Holt, Matthew Stevens vs Marco Fu, Ding Junhui vs Alan McManus and Mark Allen vs Mark King.

Follow all the action here on The Old Green Baize!