Luke Humphries backing down due to criticism sets potential dangerous precedent: "We will get robots and we don't want robots"

Luke Humphries recently indicated that he has motivation problems. The 30-year-old Englishman feels that the rapid succession of tournaments is starting to weigh on him and that he is sometimes emotionless on stage as a result. It earned him criticism, especially on social media several people felt he should not complain.

It was at the International Darts Open, held last weekend in Riesa, Germany, that Humphries told his story after his 6-1 victory in the second round against Dirk van Duijvenbode. "I feel a bit emotionless," Humphries said. "I feel like I'm up here and my emotions are all over the place. It's not that I don't want to be here, it just seems a chore for me at the moment. I'm playing too much. I need to give something away, I need a break. It's not good for my mental state."

It earned Humphries a lot of criticism, with numerous accusations hurled at his head on social media that he shouldn't complain and should be happy that there is so much money to be made in darts.

"Which is really dangerous as he's a credit to darts. He's just having a moment when he's missing his lovely young family and as we're saying he knows how lucky he is to be in such a great sport at the moment. The money's great he knows this but he's just having one of those nights. It is relentless. Place to place tournament to tournament.

"He has to go home, see his family and get his diary out. You've got the Premier League January to May, ProTours mid week, exhibitions and being one of the biggest names in darts he's asked to do a lot. We get these players seconds after these matches finish, they don't have any press teams telling them not to say things. If we stop getting that, we will get robots and we don't want robots in darts."