Dimitri van den Bergh opened up about his injury hell that stemmed from a coffee table (Image: PA Wire )
Dimitri Van den Bergh revealed that he had been playing darts with pain for 18 months after sustaining an injury while moving home. The world no.18 returns to action on Friday when he takes on Gary Anderson in the first round of the Winmau World Masters.
The reigning UK Open champion previously chose not to make public the trials and tribulations he’s faced behind the scenes over the last year and a half with regards to his injury, but that has now changed. Van den Bergh explained how he underwent physiotherapy and shockwave therapy on a troublesome wrist injury he sustained when carrying a coffee table.
The 30-year-old is free of pain when competing up on the oche as he detailed the reasons behind keeping his injury a secret. “I can start this year without feeling any pain,” he told . “We explicitly chose not to communicate anything about this for a year and a half. Questions were asked about it every now and then, but I always blocked them out. I want to be seen as someone who always does his best and there have been comments about that.”
It was during a move from Merksem to Sint-Truiden in his native Belgium where the injury was sustained after assembling furniture. “We had to do that upside down (assembling the table), so with the top at the bottom. Okay, screwed everything together and then turned the table over again.
“And we didn’t choose the smartest way there, which meant that I had the full weight of the table on my right hand. I couldn’t grab the table quickly enough with my left hand and then everything went out of balance, which my right hand couldn’t handle and which caused a crack in my right wrist.
“I couldn’t throw my dart any further than the board my foot was against for a week, because of course it was my throwing hand. I tried to make the move, but there was so much pain going through my hand that it went into spasm and I dropped my arrow on the ground at my feet.”
Dimitri van den Bergh hadn’t been able to play darts without pain for a year and a half (Image: Getty)
After a trip to the hospital, Van den Bergh discovered that a cyst had developed in his wrist due to a torn ligament which caused fluid to accumulate in his joint. The pushing of the cyst meant it affected his throwing movement but he was left unaware from where exactly the pain originated from, until his trip to a surgical specialist for an MRI.
“That man immediately understood what was wrong and told me about the cyst,” he explained. “He then treated me, but not with an operation. That would have cost me three months and I don’t have that time as a professional darts player. Certainly not then. I could have missed the Grand Slam and the Players Championship Finals, but I also knew that in that case I wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the World Championship.
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“That simply wasn’t an option, even if the cyst would have been completely removed immediately. We then started looking for alternatives, which resulted in a local injection. That burst the bubble of the cyst and then I was given cortisone. After a week of complete rest, it was much better and I started training for the World Championship.
“There everyone saw that things were going better than the months before. Not yet as they should be, but better. And I’ll take that mindset with me into the new season.”
Van Den Bergh will hope to make a triumphant start against Anderson in Friday’s event with a win taking him into a potential second-round clash against Michael van Gerwen, should the Dutchman defeat England’s Bradley Brooks.