Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson join Luke Littler in withdrawing from German Darts Championship

The German Darts Championship has become slightly lighter when it comes to big name value with originally most of the top names signed up to play the final European Tour of the season. But Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson have joined Luke Littler in withdrawing from the event.

Humphries lost in the final of the World Grand Prix last weekend and still has work to do when it comes to sorting his Minehead qualification completely. He will likely have to play the final ProTour double header meaning that he likely will prioritise that knowing he is already in Dortmund with qualification set for next weekend after the German Darts Championship.

Van Gerwen too is also in Dortmund which is where he will return to the tour. He was signed up for this weekend but won't play the next lot of ProTours, so will solely play the European Championship next week before he heads then to the Grand Slam of Darts. He released a statement earlier in the week as he failed to qualify for Minehead for the first time in his career all the way back to 2009.

It has been a wretched year for MVG in regards to the ProTour and he said that his family comes first amid his divorce proceedings to long-time wife Daphne. He will not play the next lot of ProTours due to a family holiday to Dubai a decision that was likely to cause controversy with MVG skipping multiple weekends in the summer amid his personal issues to go to music festivals and go on holidays garnering some criticism. Hence the statement as to why he has not qualified for the season ender before the World Championship.

But like the others his spot is set for next weekend so it will not be flying home to go to Hildesheim for MVG. The same can be said for Gary Anderson who often has played European Tours and won one then decided not to play in the rest and has long been a player who has not done unnecessary traveling and with Dortmund next weekend, he too is out. Callan Rydz has also withdrawn.

From the list, Littler withdrew before the Tour Card Holder Qualifier anyway so Krzysztof Ratajski comes in while Gabriel Clemens, Ricky Evans, Jeffrey de Graaf and Keane Barry are in to replace the others. Gerwyn Price, Stephen Bunting, Josh Rock and defending champion Peter Wright lead the line-up as a result. The action starts on Friday 17 October.