Nathan Aspinall has been involved in hospital drama at the Bahrain Darts Masters.
The Englishman suffered severe swelling and pain due to a suspected insect bite just hours before his opening clash against Xiaochen Zong. Aspinall wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to take his place in the World Series event after a doctor’s assessment told him to hit the hospital to have his elbow checked.
He explained: “I got bit, so I was in hospital until the early hours. I woke up and it was like a balloon. I’m like: Oh my god, not my injury again. But I seen a doctor and he advised me to go to hospital. I went to hospital and, at at four o clock [on Thursday], I didn’t know if I would be playing it was that bad. But the tablets that I’ve been on and icing it and stuff like that, it’s kind of died down. It’s still really sore, but we’ll get through this weekend and, hopefully, it it’s just a five-day thing. It was a long night.”
Ironically, given the heat in the swelling, Aspinall ended up needing warmed-up against Zong as the venue emptied during the last game of night one. He said: “It was freezing. So cold. It’s a big arena and the more people that leave, the more space and doors open. I handled the situation well.”
Aspinall’s 6-2 win set-up a Friday last-eight clash with World No.1 Luke Humphries and he’s confident after overcoming the adversity to win that Zong tie.
He said: “My finishing has been brilliant for the last couple of months. My scoring let me down. There’s still another 10 or 15 per cent on my scoring that needs to come into play, especially against Luke. But I’m happy, I’m getting stronger, week on week, mentally stronger.”
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