The World Matchplay will begin tomorrow albeit without fans behind closed doors and for Michael Smith, it is a prospect he has called 'weird'.

Smith recounts the famous UK Open in 2018 which took place in a similar setting when snow wreaked havoc on Minehead but for him, he sees the big names potentially affected having no crowd to feed off.

"It's going to be weird, going to Milton Keynes for the Matchplay," said Smith, last year's runner-up. "It will be even more weird with no fans. We did it once, for the UK Open, 2018 I think. We got snowed in. Exeter got cancelled, the Premier League, and then we had to play in Minehead with no fans.

"It was weird, but it's something we should be used to, playing at home. It's going to be like online, but at least you've got someone with you this time."

"You see [Gerwyn] Price and [Michael] van Gerwen, they love a crowd. They love giving it the big-un to the crowd," added Smith.

"It shouldn't affect them, but you don't know. They've got nothing to feed off. Some players, if I'm playing van Gerwen and they're singing his name, it annoys me, and gets under my skin. But now it's not going to be stuff like that. It's going to be silence really. It's going to be weird.

"But I guess we'll have our managers or whatever sat there watching, so it shouldn't be completely empty."