Nathan Aspinall reveals untold story of ongoing dartitis battle: "It ended up getting to the point where I was in tears... I lost my head"

Nathan Aspinall's throw has notable changed over recent years. 'The Asp' has seemingly had trouble releasing the dart at times and despite reassurance being given that it was simply a regrip technique, the two-time PDC major winner has now confirmed he has in fact being dealing with an ongoing battle against dartitis.

According to the Englishman, the problems began to emerge back in the 2023 Premier League Darts in a match against Peter Wright. Although Aspinall was leading 4-0, his darts deserted him towards the end as he struggled to even release his arrows for fear of missing. In the end, Wright came back to snatch the victory 6-5, leaving Aspinall in tears afterwards.

"All of a sudden out of nowhere I couldn't throw my effing dart. I just couldn't let it go. It ended up getting worse and worse and worse to the point where I was in tears. Because I knew what it was. The dreaded D-word that no darts player ever wants to hear or get. Something called dartitis," Aspinall explains on Sky Sports' Game of Throws documentary. "It's horrific, no one ever wants to get it. Not many people come back from it."

As Aspinall can attest, the dreaded dartitis can be totally debilitating for even the best players in the world. "It's basically the fear of missing. There's somewhere deep in the back of your head saying 'you're going to miss this' so you stop," he explains. "I lost the game 6-5, I went upstairs after the game and I was in the toilet and I was absolutely smashing ten lumps of shit out of the hand dryer. I lost my head."

Thankfully for the Asp, it hasn't completely derailed his career. He took his biggest career victory at the World Matchplay in the summer of 2023 and still remains one of the top stars on the PDC scene. A big reason for that is help sought from a psychologist. Aspinall sought help from a sports psychologist and uses techniques like looking at a photo of his daughters on his darts case to help him keep positive.