Michael van Gerwen hopes to be back in action in a matter of weeks after undergoing surgery to fix carpal tunnel syndrome in his throwing arm on Tuesday.
The 33-year-old won the Premier League in dramatic fashion on Monday night, beating Joe Cullen 11-10 after surviving match darts from the Englishman.
MVG explained that the problem has not been hampering his game – as was evidenced by his triumph in Berlin – but to avoid lasting damage in his right arm and hand, an operation is necessary and he went into surgery on Tuesday.
‘If I had a choice for not doing it, then of course, but there was no choice,’ said Van Gerwen after his Premier League win.
‘You still want to have a long career in front of you, let it help you and I’ll make sure you’re going to do well with your hand and with everything.”
‘I already had two cortisone injections in my wrist and he [the doctor] said to me: “Michael if you don’t want to have any problems with it and don’t want to have any permanent nerve damage, you need to let it help, because you’re only going to create a bigger problem for yourself.”
‘I can say it doesn’t do anything to me now, but if you make it a bigger problem you can’t help it any more. Then you’re going to lose power in your hand, for instance,
‘I don’t want to create that problem for myself so this was the right moment for me to have the operation and make sure everything gets right.’
The Dutchman explained the issue last month, releasing a statement on Twitter which read: ‘For some time now I have been experiencing a tingling sensation in my throwing hand and arm. Following medical assessment, I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.
‘I have been receiving treatment for a while in order to ease the symptoms, enabling me to continue to play to a good level. However, it has become clear that I will require an operation for this problem to go away permanently.
‘It is disappointing to miss the World Cup but myself, my management, family and medical advisors agree that it is the right time to fix the problem.
‘I will make decisions on other events in June and July based on how my recovery progresses. It is my goal to be back to one hundred per cent ahead of the World Matchplay.
‘Having this operation now means I will miss some events but should be at full strength for all the big televised tournaments for the rest of the year.’
MVG will indeed miss the World Cup, which runs from 16-19 June, along with a string of Players Championship events and two European Tour competitions.
He aims to be fit and firing again for the World Matchplay which gets underway on 16 July, less than five weeks after surgery.
MORE : Michael van Gerwen and Joe Cullen react to stunning Premier League Darts final
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