Vincent van der Voort was scheduled to be in action last week at the World Seniors Darts Championship. However, a gout attack forced him to miss out and his first-round opponent, Neil Duff, was given a free pass to the next round.
The 49-year-old Van der Voort regularly deals with gout attacks. "But this was the worst gout attack I've ever had," he said in the podcast Darts Draait Door. "I was on the couch all week because I really couldn't do anything. Even now I'm still suffering from it."
Van der Voort was prescribed a series of painkillers, including the enormously strong drug Prednisone. It did not bring much improvement, however, and for a whole week Van der Voort could barely move. "Really worthless. Studies are finally going to be done and the medication is going up. They are finally taking it seriously, so I should be able to deal with it better. I was always told to watch my diet and such and meanwhile I was taking my medication. It doesn't help anymore and it was really intense now. But the last year and a half it's been bothering me a lot more anyway."
Stops
Physical problems also threw a spanner in the works of his planned participation in the MODUS Super Series earlier this year. In the last months of last year, when Van der Voort was still active on the PDC Pro Tour, he often had to deal with physical problems.
"Every time you have to play, it gets to you," says podcast host Damian Vlottes. "Indeed, my body then says that we had agreed to stop after all. We don't do this anymore, friend," Van der Voort can still laugh somewhat. "But all jokes aside, we're really going to do something about it now."