NATHAN Aspinall admitted he’s had “unbearable pain” with a wrist and elbow injury.
The Stockport star has returned to action over the past few weeks but revealed he feared for his future due to torn ligaments and tendon damage.
Asp, 30, also believes he needs an op to solve the issue which will hamper his 2022 season after returning for the International Darts Open a fortnight ago.
He told Weekly Dartscast: “I’ve actually torn my tendon, I’ve torn my ligament and I’ve actually got a hole in my cartilage all in my wrist. I came back from my holiday in Jamaica, I had an MRI scan and it confirmed it wasn’t tendonitis.
“It’s pretty much close to snapping, it’s a lot more serious than people think and the only way to permanently fix my injury is to have an operation and to undergo this operation, I’d be out for nine months.
“At the moment, we’re trying to manage it the best we can. Trying to see how long we can get. The last thing I want to do is undergo this operation but it might come to a case that it has to be done.”
Aspinall crashed our early in the UK Open to Callan Rydz and knows he faces a tough time ahead.
He said: “I’ve have had this injury and in all honesty, if I’ve done six hours practice since December, that’s probably pushing it.
“So I went with no expectations, I would have been happy to win my first game. I had nothing to lose, it was nice to go there with no expectations.
“The week after the European Championship last year, there were four ProTours and on the Wednesday, I literally walked into the venue, the first dart of the day I threw and overextended, and I felt a pop straight away in my wrist. Putting Tiger Balm and Deep Heat on it and ironically I got to the final that day.
“I didn’t want to make it public because at that point, I didn’t know to what extent the injury was.”
“I was wearing this tape which I got advised to wear but I wasn’t wearing this tape when I was playing in tournaments till the World Championship because by that time, it was unbearable. It turned out that it was serious
