Gian van Veen still suffering with health issues after darts star’s swift return to action following hospital dash

Gian van Veen has been managing an ongoing health battle throughout the most dramatic weeks of his Premier League Darts debut — and the Dutchman has been doing so rather quietly while the sport’s attention has been focused almost entirely on his feud with Luke Littler.

The 23-year-old was hospitalised in Dublin last month after being struck down by kidney stones, missing Night 7 entirely and also having to skip the Euro Tour event in Wieze. “The pain started on Sunday morning, but it got much worse after I returned home from Göttingen. I’ve been in hospital since yesterday morning and I hope to be able to go home either today or tomorrow,” Van Veen wrote on Instagram. Surgery followed, and the knock-on to his standings was harsh — he dropped from fourth to sixth and collected a -6 leg difference penalty while Michael van Gerwen received a free bye to the semi-finals.

He was back on his feet within days, targeting Night 8 in Berlin, though not without a frank admission of where things stood. “Recovery has been a process that requires patience. The fatigue is real. My energy levels are still lower than I hoped and every day I have to be smart about how I use it,” he wrote. The PDC agreed he would not be available for pre-event media in Berlin as he continued his recovery. He played — and lost to Gerwyn Price — but he was there.

By the time he produced his now-infamous victory over Littler at Night 9 in Manchester — the one that set off the crying gesture, the frosty handshakes and two weeks of tabloid back-and-forth — Van Veen was still recovering from the kidney stones that had forced him to sit out Dublin. He beat the world champion 6-5 anyway, reached the final, and then found himself at the centre of darts’ biggest story of the year.

It is not the first time Van Veen has competed through difficulty. He has spoken openly about battling dartitis — the condition that effectively ended Eric Bristow’s career — earlier in his career, and has also discussed living with colour blindness. He is not someone who makes much noise about these things.

With Rotterdam Ahoy next up on April 16, Van Veen will hope to be closer to full fitness for his first Premier League night on home soil. He faces Luke Humphries in his opening quarter-final, with a sold-out Dutch crowd firmly behind him — and the rematch with Littler potentially only a couple of wins away.