Michael van Gerwen has revealed that he will face Luke Littler in their glamorous Dutch Masters quarter-final on Saturday evening with a broken toe. The blockbuster pair are set to clash for the first time since Littler’s 7-3 victory in the World Darts Championship final earlier in January, but Van Gerwen isn’t at full fitness.
It didn’t harm Mighty Mike’s performance in his breath-taking 6-1 triumph over Dirk van Duijvenbode in front of his home crowd at the Maaspoort in Den Bosch.
The Dutchman looked refreshed after missing the Bahrain Masters, the opening event of the World Series of Darts, to go on holiday in Thailand with his family.
However, his trip to South East Asia didn’t go entirely to plan, breaking his toe just a week before starting his 2025 campaign.
After thumping Van Duijvenbode, Van Gerwen said: “I enjoyed my vacation, definitely. It was nice to unwind and go away with family. Now we need to get back to darts, right?”
The 35-year-old added: “Dirk van Duijvenbode maybe thought the Dutch crowd would support him.
“But against one person, he doesn’t have that. That’s me. A shame for him, but you have to do it yourself in the end.”
And when asked about his unfortunate injury, the three-time world champion produced a characteristically witty response.
“You didn’t hear that. I told you that,” Van Gerwen told reporter Arjan van der Giessen before insisting it wouldn’t deter him.
“No, no, that’s annoying, but you’re not doing anything about it. It happened last week on vacation. An accident is just a bump in the road.”
Looking ahead to his world final rematch against Littler, who turned 18 earlier in the week, Van Gerwen admitted his latest defeat at the last hurdle at Ally Pally still hurt.
He explained: “At the moment itself, it’s very sour, but it wouldn’t be fair to myself if I didn’t look at this positively.
“I put up a very nice tournament and played fantastic. Sour that I didn’t reward myself, but I can take a lot of satisfaction from it now.”
Elsewhere in the last eight, Bahrain Masters champion Stephen Bunting will face home hero Raymond van Barneveld, who shocked Chris Dobey in a last-leg decider in the first round.
Gerwyn Price, the runner-up in Bahrain, will meet Kevin Doets, who sailed past Nathan Aspinall in a 6-1 win.
Jermaine Wattimena produced the shock of the first round by conquering world No. 1 Luke Humphries 6-3. Rob Cross awaits in their clash for a semi-final spot.