"The risk to my career would be far too great" - Dimitri Van den Bergh thankful that no surgery is required for wrist injury

Dimitri Van den Bergh will take on Martin Schindler in the second round of the 2025 Belgian Darts Open this weekend. The 30-year-old Belgian only managed to win one match in three previous participations in Wieze and but is hopeful of producing in front of his home crowd this time around.

Van den Bergh can finally play pain-free again after a nasty wrist injury caused him a lot of trouble for a year and a half. "That pain was caused by a cyst in my wrist," Van den Bergh explained on the podcast 'Double Top'. "That cyst is still there, but it's going away. To the relief of the surgeon and myself, because I can practice pain-free again. Before, I felt a burning pain in my wrist every time I threw for the first half hour and that wasn't exactly motivating to play. For a year and a half that problem dragged on."

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The injury first came about when the Belgian was moving house. "In July 2023, we moved in and I carried a lot of things in by myself at that time," he recalls. "Up to even our washing machine. That went well too, but at the very end I hurt myself turning over a coffee table. My wrist then got a snap and I immediately felt it wasn't right. The day after that, when throwing I was in super much pain and my darts just fell to the ground in front of my feet."

Dimitri Van den Bergh in action 

"There was a tear, fluid got into that and eventually that became a cyst," Van den Bergh continued. "That pushed on my muscles and nerves and it was very painful."

Therefore, a cortisone treatment was started to crumble the cyst - with success. "Fortunately, because such an operation is not at all obvious for a pro dart player. There are many small nerves in a wrist that are essential for hand-eye coordination and the risk to my career would be far too great. It would take at least six months after surgery for everything to be back in working order. I wouldn't even be able to train for three months, that's just not an option."

"I'm mostly happy now that I can still throw," Van den Bergh said. "If I move again, I'll just pay someone to come and haul the furniture. (laughs)"

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