Michael van Gerwen suffered a shoulder injury on Thursday during the final night of play of the regular phase of Premier League Darts. He was therefore absent for the semi-final against Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Analyst and former Premier League participant Wayne Mardle hopes Van Gerwen gets fit for the play-offs but admits it could yet be complex.
"It's not about tonight. Him and his management all have to agree that it's not about tonight. It's about next week at the O2. It's a case of, whatever needs to be done has to start now. Whatever kind of manipulation [of the shoulder] or anything.
"His health is first and foremost the priority. If he can get healthy in a week, then great, but if he can't, and this is the thing, he can't play next week slightly injured, that could prolong the healing process, and then you roll into the World Cup, and then you roll into the Matchplay.
"And then there's all kinds of problems which make things worse. It's a real tense situation, and I just hope he's okay to play next week.
"It's a horrible situation for a sportsman to be in.
"We don't know how much pain he's in. We don't know if it's playable and this is precautionary, we don't know that. We're hoping that's the case and he can play next week.
"The absolute disaster would be not being able to play next week. It's about the health of his shoulder right now."
Mardle added: "He's a winner and he'll think 'even if I'm not 100 per cent, I'm good enough' but you've got to be realistic and he could make things worse and he could end up missing the next two or three months which would be a darting disaster for him.
"We hope that rest is the best tonic."
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