Finally another win and sheer relief for Dirk van Duijvenbode after months of agony with injury

Saturday, 25 May 2024 at 13:00

Dirk van Duijvenbode finally recorded his first win on the European Tour Friday night by defeating Callan Rydz 6-3. More importantly, the Dutchman showed excellent play. For months 'Auberginius' struggled with a persistent injury to his shoulder blade, but he has now discovered what caused this injury.

Van Duijvenbode finally had another reason to cheer during the EuroTour match in Rosmalen. The Dutchman beat Callan Rydz 6-3 in front of his home crowd and was understandably delighted after the match. "My cojones are normally even bigger here," Van Duijvenbode said laughing. He further joked, "Do you know how hard it is to get out of here? There's only one way back and that's where all those guys are going. So hop, hurry up!"

Dirk van Duijvenbode beats Callan Rydz with an average of 95.48 to win his first match on the European Tour.

"I lost six times and now finally on the ranking, difficult opponent. Am just extremely happy about it. But you come here to win and not whine," Van Duivenbode responded. "With a little more confidence I could have thrown better lately as well, but my confidence is also just low. Not that I could have shown my top game, but I could have been better for it."

It was a much-needed victory, as 'Auberginius' had not won a single match in the previous six EuroTour tournaments. The Dutchman was also slowly sinking in the world rankings. The cause? A persistent injury to his shoulder blade that he has been struggling with since last year. Van Duijvenbode now knows where the problem came from.

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"Nerve damage, an inactive muscle. So for the past month and a half, I've decided to focus myself fully on my injury. I now put five to six hours a day into that. Then you can say, you should have done that before, but before I didn't know the cause so I could have done whatever I wanted, but it wouldn't have made sense. I'm very lucky now that I came out among the best."

But who helped the Dutchman during his rehabilitation? That's Pol Huijsmans, an orthopedist who specializes in shoulder problems. Together they have been working hard on the recovery of his shoulder, and it is slowly beginning to bear fruit. "I had come out to him before, but then I also saw surgeon. Then I thought, I'm not going to operate, that's really going to be my very last salvation."

"But it turns out he doesn't operate very often at all. So that's the only thing I can blame myself for, that I didn't end up with this man sooner. He is the only one in the Netherlands with a device that can reactivate my muscle. Also because I was struggling so much, I ended up with this man. Then people can say: you should have looked harder for the cause, but then I wouldn't have ended up with this person either."

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Because of this injury, Van Duijvenbode was in a tough spot, darts was ultimately no longer the most important thing for the Dutchman. "You slip out of all the rankings and put all the time into that injury, but there is no improvement. That's why I decided a month and a half ago to focus fully on recovery. Darts is a little less important in my life for a while. The most important thing in my life right now is my recovery. Or well, after my child then, of course."

But as mentioned earlier, his shoulder is slowly recovering, something Van Duijvenbode himself also notes, "I can suddenly throw my arm upwards again, I couldn't do that before. My inactive muscle is slowly becoming active again, but before that nerve damage is completely resolved.... That may take a while, but 'playing normally' would already be nice and I'm confident about that."

Tonight Van Duijvenbode will take on 'Rocky' Josh Rock in the second round in one of the top ties.

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