Nathan Aspinall has revealed the dramatic events that unfolded at the Bahrain Darts Masters, where a suspected insect bite left him in pain and uncertain about competing.
The Englishman suffered severe swelling and pain in his elbow, prompting a doctor to advise him to visit the hospital just hours before his opening match against Xiaochen Zong.
Aspinall recounted the ordeal, saying: “I got bit, so I was in hospital until the early hours. I woke up and it was like a balloon. I’m like: Oh my god, not my injury again. But I seen a doctor and he advised me to go to hospital.
“I went to hospital and, at at four o clock [on Thursday], I didn’t know if I would be playing it was that bad. But the tablets that I’ve been on and icing it and stuff like that, it’s kind of died down. It’s still really sore, but we’ll get through this weekend and, hopefully, it it’s just a five-day thing. It was a long night.”
In a twist of fate, Aspinall found himself needing to warm up during his match against Zong as the venue emptied and the temperature dropped. He noted: “It was freezing. So cold. It’s a big arena and the more people that leave, the more space and doors open. I handled the situation well.”
Despite the challenges, Aspinall secured a 6-2 win, setting up a quarter-final clash with world No.1 Luke Humphries, and he’s feeling confident after overcoming the adversity.
He declared: “My finishing has been brilliant for the last couple of months. My scoring let me down. There’s still another 10 or 15 per cent on my scoring that needs to come into play, especially against Luke. But I’m happy, I’m getting stronger, week on week, mentally stronger.”
In Bahrain, new world champion Luke Littler began his title defence with a 6-3 victory over Lourence Ilagan in Sakhir. The teenager won his first PDC title there a year ago, and a 142 checkout in the eighth leg was the pick of the action, before fans emptied out of the arena.
A major shock saw world No. 4 Rob Cross suffer defeat to Paolo Nebrida, who became the first player from the Philippines to ever win a match on the World Series.
Quarter-final schedule
Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall
Stephen Bunting v Chris Dobey
Luke Littler v Gerwyn Price
Paolo Nebrida v Peter Wright
