"Luckily, my natural ability was still there" - Kim Huybrechts on the road back to his best following collarbone fracture

For a long while, Kim Huybrechts has been at the forefront of Belgian darts, inspiring the next generation and carrying the flag for his nation within the PDC's elite. Of late however, 'The Hurricane' has been battling some injury struggles.

Competing recently at the 2024 Sapphire Darts Trophy, Huybrechts was able to view some of Belgium's next generation in action and it's fair to say, he's confident the future of the sport, not only in his nation, is in good hands. "The biggest example we have at the moment, is Luke Littler. He is so young and he's just taking over darts," 'The Hurricane' tells Sarah Milkowski. "If I speak about Belgium, when I started in the PDC there was not a lot of youth players and the growth wasn't really good. After Mike De Decker and Dimitri van den Bergh, there was no youth player that could follow them. But now, we have so many talents!"

"I've practiced with a few of them, 12 years old, 13 years old, 14 years old and they just throw trebles for fun and that's in Belgium," Huybrechts continues. "Germany, that's a big market also, so I can only imagine it's the same there. In Holland, they've always been known for their big talents so I think in 10 or 15 years, the level that we see now, with 100 averages being normal, I think we can reach 105/106 being the new normal."

Huybrechts own career was put on hold recently after suffering a bad injury to his throwing arm, having been caught up in a scuffle at the Belgian Cup final. "The shoulder is not painful, it just feels tired. It feels as if I've been throwing for hours already," he updates on his condition. "In that perspective it is difficult but it's not like I feel pain or anything so that's alright."

Despite the seeming severity of his injury, Huybrechts returned to action soon after. "In the beginning, the surgeon who did the operation said 'I don't think you're going to be playing the Pro Tour,' but I knew I would play it," he recalls. "He said he didn't think it would be good but I told him I knew it would be good and I knew my personality. When I go for something, I go for something and I felt confident. When I went to the follow up with the doctor, he said 'wow, I haven't seen this many times in my career for someone to have an injury like this and recover so fast!'"

"I couldn't train a lot because I wasn't allowed to play darts for the first two or three weeks. As soon as I had the green light, it was only a maximum one hour a day, spread over three sessions," continues Huybrechts, detailing his arduous recovery process. "Luckily, my natural ability was still there... As soon as I started playing again, the trebles were there and the doubles were there."