After undergoing surgery on Tuesday to treat carpal tunnel syndrome in his throwing arm, Michael van Gerwen hopes to be back in play in a few weeks.
On Monday night, the 33-year-old won the Premier League in dramatic manner, defeating Joe Cullen 11-10 after surviving the Englishman’s match darts.
MVG said that the ailment hasn’t hampered his game – as seen by his victory in Berlin – but that an operation is required to avoid long-term harm to his right arm and hand, and he underwent 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.’
He explained the issue last month in a statement he released 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 be absent from the World Cup, which takes place from June 16 to 19, as well as a number of Players Championship events and two European Tour events.
He hopes to be fully recovered for the World Matchplay, which begins on July 16th, fewer than five weeks after surgery.