Luke Littler broke the glass and sounded the alarm about top darts players suffering from burnout after world No.1 Luke Humphries admitted his games had become a “chore.”
Although social media’s knee-jerk tendency seized on Humphries’ comments with an illiterate lack of empathy, Luke the Nuke – only in his second season on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit – expressed solidarity with his rival.
And 18-year-old Littler advised his predecessor as world champion to focus on the 17-week Premier League travelling circus, where the Lukes of Hazard are comfortably the top two in the table.
Ahead of a Players Championship double header on the floor in Leicester over the next two days, Littler warned: “It’s not good to see a player like Luke Humphries, the world No.1, admit he’s struggling.
“I totally agree with him, and Gerwyn Price said the same thing last night – it’s tough, especially when players are travelling to places where there are no direct flights and then you have to catch a train to reach the venue.
“I think Luke knows he has to balance his schedule and maybe focus on the Premier League. That’s why I’ve taken time off this year and I’ve not gone to the last two European Tour events.
“After I played against Luke in the final of the Premier League night in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago, we both said we were tired.
“I think we averaged around 94 (93.62 and 93.31) in that game and I was just happy to get the win.”
Humphries was playing in his 11th tournament of 2025 when he reached the semi-finals before being defeated by eventual winner Stephen Bunting at the International Darts Open in Germany on Sunday.
Through the pangs of exhaustion, he revealed: “I feel a little bit emotionless. I feel like I’m up here and my emotions are all over the place.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be here, but it just seems a chore for me at the moment. I’m playing too much and I need to give something away. I need a break – it’s no good for my mental state.”
Hanging judges on social media, some of whom should be kept away from the sharp end of darts for their own safety, expressed little sympathy for Humphries.
He responded angrily: “That’s the last time I ever confess my real feelings to the public.”
And he warned fans they may have to settle for darts players giving “all the same answers in interviews like robots” if it was a barometer of public compassion amid the gruelling PDC schedule.
Price, who goes for a seventh consecutive win against Littler in the BetMGM Premier League in Manchester on Thursday night, concurs with Humphries’ misgivings about the demands of travel and playing.
After his narrow defeat by Nathan Aspinall in the last 16 in Riesa, a town of 29,000 people about 40 miles from Dresden, the ‘Iceman’ posted: “Gutted to lose today but so happy to be on the way home. Too much darts.”
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