Jonny Clayton reveals ‘weird’ condition that is causing him to limp

Jonny Clayton reveals ‘weird’ condition that is causing him to limp

Jonny Clayton has opened up on the painful condition that left him visibly struggling to walk during his stunning Premier League Night Six triumph in Nottingham — and admitted that its unpredictable nature makes it one of the strangest things he has ever had to deal with.

The Welshman was clearly limping throughout the evening at the Motorpoint Arena, yet somehow beat Michael van Gerwen, Stephen Bunting and Luke Humphries in succession to claim his second nightly win of the 2026 season. After the match, Clayton revealed the cause: a gout flare-up that had been building since the previous weekend’s UK Open in Minehead.

“To be honest, I do get flare-ups with gout. I take medication every day,” Clayton told reporters. “But it started in the UK Open on Saturday. I could feel it. I was starting to limp on Saturday.”

Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis caused by the build-up of uric acid crystals in the joints, producing sudden bouts of intense pain, swelling and tenderness — most commonly in the feet and ankles. For Clayton it has been a recurring companion throughout his professional career, though the location of the problem has shifted over the years.

“Funnily enough, it was in my elbow in my first year in the Premier League,” he said. “So it’s moved now to my ankle.”

What makes it so difficult to manage, Clayton explained, is its sheer unpredictability. He could be in agony one evening and completely fine the next morning — with no way of knowing which it will be.

“You just take your medication. I could go back to bed tonight, wake up tomorrow as if there’s nothing there,” he said. “It is weird, proper weird. When it comes on, it gives you a warning and if you don’t catch it in time, then you know all about it. And obviously I know all about it now.”

The 51-year-old admitted he had gone into the Nottingham night with low expectations, but said the key to getting through it was refusing to stop moving. Sitting down, he found, only made the pain intensify.

“It was always in my mind, I’m going to hold on. I’m going to strap my foot up and take medication and hopefully I get through,” he said. “I was practising just to keep on it — every time I sat down, it was getting worse. I’m dreading taking my shoe off.”

Sky Sports analyst Wayne Mardle noted during the broadcast that the position of the affected joint mattered. “If it’s not your weight-bearing foot, you can get away with it,” Mardle observed — and Clayton, somehow, did exactly that, producing a doubles success rate of 67 per cent in the final compared to Humphries’ 13 per cent.

The condition also means Clayton will sit out this weekend’s European Darts Trophy in Göttingen, Germany. He said on Thursday night there was “no chance” he would be able to play, and he later officially withdrew from the event to give himself time to recover.

He now leads the Premier League table on 19 points, eight clear of Luke Littler in second. Whatever he achieves from here, it will have been built, at least in part, on one of the most awkward afflictions in sport — one that, as Clayton himself put it, just turns up as and when it wants to.