Aspinall reveals operation needed at some point for wrist injury: "It's a lot more serious than people think"

Nathan Aspinall returned to action over the past few weeks still managing his wrist and elbow injury which saw 'The Asp' fear for his darting future but a run to the International Darts Open semi-finals showed that the form is still there.

"I did so much better than I thought I'd do. 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," said Aspinall to Weekly Dartscast.

He revealed the moment he found out about the injury and how he managed it from keeping it away from public knowledge to then having to wear tape at the World Championship due to the pain getting 'unbearable'.

"The week after the European Championship, there was 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 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."

In statements released, it was first thought that Aspinall had tennis elbow and tendonitis but in an exclusive to the Weekly Dartscast, he said that it's worse than first announced.

"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."