Van Gerwen misses the Players Championship Finals for the first time!

Van Gerwen misses the Players Championship Finals for the first time!

Michael van Gerwen surprised his fans yesterday with a shocking announcement: he will miss the Players Championship Finals for the first time in his career. The three-time world champion, who is very popular in the darts world, withdrew from the remaining ProTour events. The reason? Van Gerwen has now set priorities that go beyond sport. How Sky Sports reports, in addition to the separation from his wife Daphne, the focus is primarily on his father Henri, who is fighting cancer. These circumstances led him to temporarily put his darts career on hold.

During these turbulent times, van Gerwen has decided to spend more time with his children and plans not to take part in the last two Players Championship tournaments. While he also canceled the German Darts Championship last weekend, he still has a place at the European Championship in Dortmund from October 23rd to 26th.

The Players Championship Finals have been an integral part of his game calendar since 2009 and are considered an important part of the darts season. Only the best 64 players qualify for this tournament and van Gerwen finds himself in 93rd place on the Order of Merit this season. A look at the statistics shows that van Gerwen only took part in 15 of the 31 Players Championship tournaments. He was eliminated in the first round eight times and scored a total of £14,500 - leaving him £9,000 shy of a place in the top 64. These results make it clear that van Gerwen has not been able to show his usual form this season Darts News notes.

What went almost unnoticed is the fact that van Gerwen was spotted at Manchester Airport on Tuesday, suggesting he may have been flying back to the Netherlands to be with his family. At the same time, there were also some exciting duels in the darts world. Dom Taylor defeated van Gerwen in another important game and shows that the competition is getting stronger. Luke Littler and Nathan Aspinall also presented impressive performances, so that the darts scene is looking forward to the upcoming events.

These developments raise questions about what will happen next for van Gerwen and whether he can find his way back to his old form after this necessary break. What is certain, however, is that his return to the darts world is as expected as the next major PDC tournaments, which are already in the starting blocks. The Professional Darts Corporation organizes a variety of events, including eleven major tournaments and the Pro Tour, which have made Van Gerwen so successful in the past and on Darts1 can be read.

The darts world is now concerned with how the situation surrounding van Gerwen will develop and whether he will soon be able to return to the stage that means so much to him.