Van Gerwen ‘coughing’ and ‘very ill’ during nightmare week

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN has been “coughing” and “very ill” amid another difficult week on the oche.

The world No7 endured a miserable run of results after playing two Players Championships in England before travelling to Budapest for the Hungarian Darts Trophy.

Van Gerwen, 37, crashed out in the opening round of one event and reached the third round of the other before losing 6-4 to Nathan Aspinall in the last 16 in Budapest.

Former pro and close friend Vincent van der Voort saw first-hand how unwell his compatriot was after visiting the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort.

He told the Darts Draait Door Podcast: “It wasn’t great all week, that’s right. I’m always very strict, hard and direct with and about him, but this week there wasn’t a lot he could do.

“He was really very ill. He came back from Zandvoort and it was unreal. Coughing, honestly unreal.

“On the Tuesday he shouldn’t even have played, because he had a fever.”

Mighty Mike averaged below 90 as he fell 6-5 to Nick Kenny at Players Championship 27 in Leicester.

Van der Voort believes Van Gerwen’s health problems left him playing catch-up throughout the week.

He added: “All of that was with a huge effort and little energy. As the week went on he did start to feel better, only you’re not immediately recovered from those previous days.

“You’re already out of form, tired, behind on practice and then… it’s very hard work for him. He felt that himself too.”

MVG could drop as low as 20th in the PDC Order of Merit after the 2026/27 World Championship.

The three-time world champ also has a huge chunk of prize money to defend after reaching the finals at Ally Pally and the World Matchplay.

Van der Voort believes Van Gerwen’s current struggles are down to a combination of physical and mental factors.

He continued: “You feel very rough, you’ve got little energy, your confidence is much lower than before and then, all told, it’s very hard work to produce anything of a level.”

But despite his recent troubles, Van der Voort insists opponents still fear facing the 48-time major winner.

He said: “They all still find it difficult to play Michael. It’s definitely still in there.

“There needs to be a lot more practice and he’s going to do that. Then we need to see him get better week by week.”

Words: Aaron Nijjar

Image: Taylor Lanning