LITTLER OPENS UP ON EYE SURGERY THAT SAVED HIS CAREER

LUKE LITTLER has opened up on the eye surgery which may have been vital in his stunning career.

The Nuke is king of a sport where accuracy and millimetres count and sight has to be razor sharp hunting tiny targets.

And Littler has spoken about corrective surgery he underwent as a very young boy to help ensure that his vision was spot on.

Ahead of his Saturday night clash against Mensur Suljovic at the World Championship, the teenager explained the background.

Littler headed to a hospital near his home in Warrington just prior to the tournament to visit some kids and bring some festive cheer.

It’s where his own operation took place as he recounted: “I don’t even know what’s the right word. The slang version is ‘bog eye’ but what’s the actual word for it? Obviously when you’ve got one normal eye. I don’t have memories of it now. But obviously it had to be done and it got done. I was four or maybe five, obviously got it sorted.”

In a precision sport, Littler acknowledged the potential significance of the procedure and added: “Yeah, obviously it’s really important. I don’t have many memories of that happening. There’s pictures that me and my family put on. I was very tired at the time, resting. But now we’re all good.”

The World Champion accepts that, without the surgery, he may not have ended up in the same position he is in now as he replied: “Yeah, well, who knows? It’s one of them, obviously, it had to be sorted. Obviously, mum and dad wanted that sorted. When I was younger, I didn’t really care. But now you look at it, obviously it was a good thing to get done.

“As I said, I don’t have many memories of that happening. There are pictures that me and my family put on [social media]. I think that’s the last time I was in hospital for anything.

Littler confirmed that he does not have regular eye tests and doesn’t recall the last time he had one as he said: “Maybe I did when I was at the hospital, but not even with darts. Obviously for a normal person, if your vision starts to go blurry or something, that’s when you have to go to the doctors, so fingers crossed nothing happens.”

Littler explained his trip to see the kids in the first place and said: “Leading up to the World Championship, I wanted to do some great things. I wanted to go there and surprise the little ones and throw a few magnetic darts with them.”

Littler’s goodwill won’t extend to Suljovic in tonight’s showdown and, now into the business end of the tournament, the spotlight of sport is about to fall on him again just as it did two years ago when he reached the Final on debut at 16 years of age and then won it 12 months ago.

He urged the public to tune in and said: “If it’s your first time, the sport has taken off, leaps and bounds and Christmas is darts. Obviously, there’s football going on as well. But all I see is Christmas is for darts. And if anyone’s not watching it at the minute, then you should turn it on after Christmas.”

Image by TAYLOR LANNING.