"When the boss says '24 days leave maximum', you don't have much choice" - No Ronny Huybrechts at first two Players Championships of the year

Next week, the first two Players Championships of the year will be finished in Wigan, England, on Monday, Feb. 12 and Tuesday, Feb. 13.

Starting this year, all thirty Players Championships will be held during the week, no longer on weekends. For many players, this change was very inconvenient due to the fact some of them still have to balance a full-time job alongside their darts career. "This is a very big disaster," Ronny Huybrechts said last year.

Besides darts, "The Rebel" is active as a warehouseman at Bravilor, a small Schoten-based company that supplies coffee machines to all kinds of firms. "I already took a quick look and did some calculations: if I take part in all floor tournaments until June, my days off. And I haven't even counted the qualifications for other tournaments. That's just not possible. I can't be absent for 80 to 90 days as the only warehouse worker with us. In a big factory, you can possibly make a deal with your boss, but this is not the case for me. I can sometimes pick a few extra days, but not that much."

Huybrechts therefore fits for the first two Players Championships of the year and will also not participate in the qualifying tournaments for the first two Euro Tours (including the Belgian Darts Open in Wieze) in the following days. "I will indeed not be there next week," Huybrechts told Het Nieuwsblad. "I only have 24 days of leave, so it's not doable for me to join them all. Wigan is therefore dropped. That I give up Wieze like that? When the boss says '24 days leave maximum', you don't have much choice."

Ronny Huybrechts is currently ranked 86th in the world and is in the second year of his PDC Tour Card. For him to keep that Tour Card, he must be in the top 64 by the end of the year.