Michael Smith admitted “maybe I’m not quite good enough” in a bitterly honest assessment of his own game and why he was not invited back to the Premier League Darts. Smith, the 2023 world champion, reached the pinnacle of darts at Alexandra Palace just 26 months ago but he has struggled to recapture that blistering form at the oche. Having been diagnosed with arthritis, a devastating condition for a darts player, he has dropped to 17th on the PDC Order of Merit and crashed out of the World Championship in the second round in December.
Smith comfortably reached the quarter-finals of the UK Open, however, despite not playing to his full potential. He sent defending champion Dimitri van den Bergh home with a 10-3 victory, though the Belgian averaged just 70. And speaking after that win, Smith conceded: “It’s one of them, not overlooked, but like in my head I am thinking ‘maybe I am not quite good enough at the minute’. Like my name doesn’t mean something like it did in 2023.
“That’s nothing to do with the PDC, that in my head is thinking that way and it’s helping me thinking ‘give the selectors or give ITV or whoever the headache’, of going ‘oh, should we put Michael on this?’
“That’s what I want now and I think in 2020 I was doing the same thing. That’s what I think and that’s the motivation that I need, that’s what I need to do.”
Smith revealed that he is now working with Manchester City’s physio to help deal with crippling arthritis pain in his wrists, which stems from breaking both of them in a freak accident while he was a child.
A shoulder injury on Christmas Day added literal insult to injury but prompted Smith to work with the same physio as Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne to ease his pain.
“I’ve had cortisone injections in my wrist three weeks ago,” Smith revealed before travelling to Minehead for the UK Open. “My hand is fine at the minute.
“It was a bit sore on the joint. First of all I threw a dart and it missed the board at home and hit the mural which I’ve just painted in my games room, so that was fun.
“Right now it’s fine. For the last week and a half I’ve been able to practice for four hours a day, which I’ve not been able to do for the last 12 weeks.
“I’ve had the arthritis for years. The worst thing has been going to Minehead because it’s so cold there.
“So many times I’ve said online that the cold affects me and everyone says it’s the same for all the players. It’s not really for me because it gets to my wrist.”
