Nathan Aspinall Confirms He’ll ‘Give His PDC Tour Card Up’ on One Condition
Nathan Aspinall has revealed the heartbreaking condition under which he would have walked away from professional darts entirely – and it nearly happened just months ago.
The two-time major champion, currently ranked world number 14, admitted he came within a whisker of surrendering his PDC Tour Card and ending his darting career, with plans already in motion for a drastically different future.
The Lowest Point
Speaking candidly ahead of last summer’s World Matchplay, Aspinall confessed that just twelve months earlier, he’d been making concrete plans to quit the sport that had defined his adult life.
“It was here 12 months ago I remember walking around the lake with Pete, who was security, saying I need to put a plan in place because I don’t think I’ll be playing darts in two years,” Aspinall revealed in July 2025.
The condition that would have forced him to give up his tour card? If his body and mind could no longer compete at the elite level required to survive on the PDC circuit.
Aspinall had been battling lingering injury problems and struggling with dartitis – a psychological condition that affects a player’s ability to release the dart smoothly. The combination was threatening to end his career prematurely, and The Asp knew it.
The Backup Plan
Unlike many players who talk vaguely about “stepping away” from darts, Aspinall wasn’t just contemplating retirement – he was actively preparing for it.
“I actually started the process of setting up my own darts academy,” Aspinall admitted. “I’m an ambassador for one in Stockport, but I was in the process of doing like a Nathan Aspinall School of Excellence to try and give something back to a sport that’s given me so much.”
The plans had progressed far beyond idle daydreaming. Aspinall was putting real resources into establishing the academy, recognizing that his playing days might be numbered if he couldn’t overcome his physical and mental struggles.
For a player who’d reached two World Championship semi-finals, won the UK Open and World Matchplay, and established himself firmly in the world’s top ten, the prospect of walking away at age 33 should have been unthinkable.
But when your body won’t cooperate and your mind betrays you on the oche, rankings and past glories mean nothing.
The Wake-Up Call
Aspinall’s near-retirement wasn’t just about darts. The struggles on stage had spilled over into his personal life, forcing a reckoning about his priorities and future.
“So not just in the darts world, but in my personal life as well, it was a big eye opener,” Aspinall reflected. “And you know what I always say – things happen for a reason.”
He continued: “I think it’s happened for a reason, to stop being an idiot and actually put a plan in place for the future.”
The self-awareness in that statement is striking. Aspinall recognized that he’d been drifting without a proper contingency plan, assuming his playing career would somehow continue indefinitely despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
The injury and dartitis crisis forced him to confront uncomfortable truths: that professional darts careers don’t last forever, that the body eventually betrays even the most talented players, and that life after the oche requires preparation.
The Remarkable Recovery
What makes Aspinall’s revelation even more powerful is the timing. He shared these details while competing at the 2025 World Matchplay – the same venue where, a year earlier, he’d been mentally preparing to quit.
Instead of walking away, Aspinall fought his way back. He won two European Tour titles in 2025 and reached quarter-finals in all ranked television tournaments, proving that reports of his decline had been premature.
“Still, ‘The Asp’s’ resilience is impressive,” observers noted. “Despite the past, he is now just back at it again in Blackpool, chasing his second World Matchplay title.”
Aspinall’s recovery speaks to his mental toughness and refusal to surrender without exhausting every option. Rather than accepting defeat when his game abandoned him, he worked through the technical and psychological issues that threatened his career.
The Dartitis Battle
Aspinall’s struggles with dartitis had been an open secret in the darting world for years, though he initially denied the condition’s existence.
Commentators and fellow players – including Michael van Gerwen – had noticed Aspinall’s distinctive mid-throw pause, where he’d stop to regrip the dart differently. The speculation about dartitis followed him throughout 2022 and early 2023.
Aspinall repeatedly insisted during interviews that the hiccups didn’t have a mental cause, maintaining that it was simply his throwing style. But eventually, honesty won out over pride.
“However, he later openly admitted to having the condition, having first encountered it during a Premier League match against Peter Wright in 2023,” reports confirmed.
Admitting to dartitis carries enormous stigma in professional darts. The condition is poorly understood, deeply frustrating, and potentially career-ending. Players suffering from it face not only the technical challenge of relearning their release, but also the mental burden of wondering whether every throw might suddenly abandon them.
For Aspinall to openly acknowledge his dartitis while simultaneously contemplating retirement shows just how serious his situation had become by mid-2024.
The Historical Context
Aspinall’s near-retirement wasn’t his first brush with giving up darts entirely. His journey to PDC stardom has been punctuated by moments when the game almost slipped away.
Back in 2015, after failing at Q-School in 2014, Aspinall actually joined the army. He completed basic training and seemed destined for a military career that would have required surrendering any professional darting ambitions.
“However, after doing his basic training, he ended up being released due to a medical report,” historical accounts reveal. “If he ended up joining the army, he would have had to give up his darting dream.”
That medical release – which could have felt like failure at the time – proved providential. The landowner of Aspinall’s local pub suggested he try Q-School again and even offered to pay the £450 entry fee.
Aspinall won his tour card in 2015, launching the career that would eventually see him become a two-time major champion.
Then came 2018, when financial reality nearly ended everything. Aspinall found himself with just £20 to his name, essentially broke and facing the prospect of abandoning professional darts to provide for his family.
In perhaps the most pressure-packed weekend of his life, Aspinall showed up at the ProTour knowing everything was on the line. He responded by playing some of the best darts of his career and winning his first ProTour title, claiming the £10,000 prize that kept his dreams alive.
“From that moment on, Aspinall’s mindset and attitude towards the game changed completely,” observers noted.
Now, in 2024, Aspinall faced a different kind of crisis. Not financial pressure or lack of opportunity, but the betrayal of his own body and mind on the oche.
The Current Reality
As of January 2026, Aspinall sits at world number 14 – still comfortably inside the top 32 and assured of automatic entry to every major tournament.
But his recent struggles demonstrate how quickly fortunes can change in professional darts. He was beaten 4-3 by Kevin Doets in the third round of the World Championship, despite producing a spectacular 170 checkout during his run.
More significantly, Aspinall was excluded from the 2026 Premier League lineup despite participating in the 2025 edition and reaching Finals Night.
He learned of his omission in the most awkward way possible – sitting next to Stephen Bunting on a flight when the PDC sent text messages announcing Bunting’s inclusion and Aspinall’s exclusion within six minutes of each other.
“I was travelling with Stephen Bunting and we were sat next to each other on the plane and he got a text message at 3:15 saying he was in,” Aspinall recalled. “I got a text message at 3:21 saying I wasn’t in. He’s buzzing, and I wanted to jump off the plane!”
When asked why he’d been overlooked, Aspinall offered a simple explanation: “My ranking was too low.”
The Conditional Surrender
So what would make Nathan Aspinall actually give up his PDC Tour Card?
Based on his candid admission from July 2025, the answer is clear: if his body and mind could no longer perform at the level required to compete professionally.
Aspinall wasn’t talking about dropping down the rankings or struggling to make a living. He was talking about the fundamental inability to throw darts consistently due to injury or dartitis.
“I don’t think I’ll be playing darts in two years,” he’d said while walking around the lake at Blackpool. That wasn’t defeatism or depression speaking – it was pragmatic assessment of his physical and mental state.
If the dartitis had proved unmanageable, if the injuries hadn’t healed, if every throw became a battle against his own nervous system, Aspinall would have walked away. The academy plans were his exit strategy, a way to remain involved in darts while acknowledging he could no longer compete.
The Resilience Factor
What separates Aspinall’s story from countless other players who’ve considered retirement is what happened next.
Rather than accepting defeat, he fought through the dartitis, rehabbed his injuries, and rebuilt his game. The academy plans went on hold. The two-year timeline for retirement was torn up.
By the 2025 World Matchplay – exactly where he’d been contemplating quitting twelve months earlier – Aspinall was back competing for titles.
“I believe me and Gezzy [Gerwyn Price] are right up there. I think we’re playing really well. I think Stephen Bunting is playing great as well,” Aspinall assessed. “But I certainly think Humphries is the best player in the world at the moment, followed by Littler, and then there is a chasing pack, shall we say.”
That confident self-assessment from a player who’d been planning his exit a year earlier demonstrates remarkable mental fortitude.
The Lesson
Aspinall’s conditional willingness to surrender his tour card – if he physically or mentally couldn’t continue – reveals an important truth about professional darts that fans sometimes forget.
These aren’t robots throwing tungsten. They’re human beings with bodies that break down, minds that betray them, and families depending on their success.
When Aspinall says he’d give up his tour card if he couldn’t compete properly, he’s not being weak. He’s being honest about the realities of professional sport.
The courage isn’t just in continuing to play through struggles. It’s also in knowing when to walk away if those struggles become insurmountable.
Fortunately for Aspinall – and for darts fans who appreciate his honesty and skill – that moment hasn’t arrived. The Asp fought back from the brink, overcame his dartitis demons, and remains a formidable competitor on the PDC circuit.
But the Nathan Aspinall School of Excellence plans remain filed away somewhere, just in case. Because professional athletes who survive long-term are those who plan for every eventuality – including the one where their bodies finally say enough is enough.
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