"There’s a lot to gain back, but I just need to get back to work with this new head": Rob Cross picking mental health over hunting opportunities

Rob Cross is determined to breathe new life into his career. After a spell in which illness, mental struggles, and personal issues affected his stage performances, the former world champion sounds more combative than he has in a long time.

The Englishman, nicknamed “Voltage,” says he feels mentally stronger and more stable than six to eight months ago—and that the hunger to contend for major titles has fully returned. Cross is therefore intent on making a fresh start this season.

Although Cross claimed the first Players Championship of 2025 and the Dutch Darts Masters, he describes the season as challenging. The current world number 20 struggled not only with physical issues but also with mental problems away from darts. That combination took a toll on his game.

“I’ve always loved routine in life, and I’ve started to get one now. I’m a bit more settled in life than I was six to eight months ago. I’m a lot happier as a human being, as a person really."

During the recent World Darts Championship and also recently, Cross spoke openly about his mental state. That honesty appears to have served him well. Where he previously pushed on and set his problems aside, he now consciously chooses reflection and self-development.

“I lacked tournaments last year and the year before because playing in the Premier League and the World Series takes it out of you. There’s a lot to gain back, but I just need to get back to work with this new head. With what I’m trying to do in the background, it’s going to help me massively.

The Englishman stresses that his problems weren’t solely about darts. “The hunger has come back and, legitimately, last year I experienced stuff and had certain things go wrong in my life. So, it is not really darts-related sometimes. It is a busy schedule, but I can’t really blame darts — I’m not that type of person."

Instead, Cross puts the responsibility on himself. “I will work on myself and try to address it now. It is something I have not done before. I know the game is still there and I know I’m still good."

That belief remains undiminished. Cross won the PDC World Championship in 2018 and has since proven multiple times that he can belong to the absolute elite. He believes that level is still within reach.

"I look at it like I still have ten good years left in this game. If I play to the best of my abilities, I know I can beat anyone in the world. I also know if I was where I was six months ago, I would lose to anyone in the world.

“So I just need to get up there and start enjoying life and playing regularly — start grabbing some ranking points.”

His start to the season may not have been spectacular, but it has been solid. Cross reached the fourth round of the World Championship and went out in the last 32 at the first two ProTour events of the year. Not results to set off alarm bells, but not yet the level he is aiming for either.

Notably, Cross is absent from this year’s Premier League Darts line-up. For many players that is a blow, but the Englishman sees it differently. Of course he would have liked to be there, yet he also views it as an opportunity.

“In regard to me not being in it this year, I suppose I am going to miss it. But doing all this new stuff, it wouldn’t be possible to try and sort myself out by being in it."

The weekly pressure of the Premier League Darts, with travel across Europe and packed arenas, takes a lot out of a player—physically and mentally. For Cross, the relative calm comes at the right time.

“I think it just gives me time to do what I want to do. I get to work on myself. I think I’m guilty sometimes — you put your big boy pants on and you think to yourself, ‘We will carry on the same gravy train.’

The absence of a major stage like the Premier League Darts can, in his view, create room for growth. “I think personally not having the Premier League or anything illustrious will give me that time to reflect on myself, to make sure I can do something.”