"If you don't want to do it then it's time to retire": Michael van Gerwen ready to fight amid Littler and Humphries dominance

Whilst Michael van Gerwen doesn't see his peak dominance returning, he is prepared to fight Luke Littler and Luke Humphries as the current top players in the sport. For Van Gerwen, it has gone from him being quite bullish about being the best to admitting he's not anymore.

But that doesn't put the fire out with Van Gerwen having a twinkle in his eye as he spoke about taking the fight to them. Albeit in terms of his 2016 - 2017 self which saw the Dutchman dominate the sport and become one of the most revered sportsman, he doesn't see that returning. But the standard in his view will as opposed to domination.

"I think that's a different era. Same if you're going to say Phil Taylor. I can still get back to those standards," said Van Gerwen.

"Yeah but is the standard a lot better than what I do now?" asked Van Gerwen. Consistency was then mooted as what the difference is. "I think that's possible 100%. If you look at the last week, I averaged over 100 I think. Towards the end of the year, I should be reaching my peak point again and that's what I'm looking forward to."

He then spoke about Humphries and Littler and what they've done in the short space of time. "I need to make sure I get my chin up and fight. If you want to compete with the best, you have to keep fighting and keep trying to make yourself a better player, if you don't want to do it then it's time to retire."

He was also asked about the fact that he had no one really to push him which also made him confident as he said that while he can't answer about whether the lack of rivals made it easier, he sees Littler and Humphries as a caveat for a return. "That's not really for me to answer. You're always going to have good times in your career and bad times. That's how sport goes. It's more the question how do you answer it, how do you deal with the situation. I need to make sure I fight my own battles and I will be back don't worry."