Premier League Darts leader forced to pull out of tournament as he opens up on ‘agony’ of painful daily illness

Premier League Darts leader forced to pull out of tournament as he opens up on ‘agony’ of painful daily illness

Jonny Clayton has been forced to withdraw from this weekend’s European Darts Trophy in Germany after revealing that the gout condition which left him limping through his Premier League triumph in Nottingham has made it impossible for him to compete.

The Welshman said on Thursday night, moments after claiming his second nightly win of the 2026 season, that there was “no chance” he would be able to play in Göttingen — and he subsequently made the withdrawal official. Clayton now tops the Premier League table by eight points and will use the coming days to rest and recover ahead of Night Seven in Brighton on March 19.

The gout flare-up, Clayton revealed, had actually begun the previous weekend during the UK Open at Butlin’s Minehead Resort, where he reached the quarter-finals. “It started in the UK Open on Saturday,” he told reporters. “I could feel it. I was starting to limp on Saturday.”

By the time the Premier League roadshow arrived in Nottingham, the pain in his left ankle had intensified to the point where he could barely walk normally. Yet, remarkably, he beat Michael van Gerwen, Stephen Bunting and Luke Humphries in succession — the last of those by a crushing 6-1 scoreline — to extend his lead at the top of the table.

Clayton described the condition in vivid terms, making clear that it is not a one-off problem but a chronic part of his daily life. “I do suffer a lot with gout. I take medication every day,” he said. “Funnily enough it was in my elbow when I did my first year in the Premier League, so it’s moved now to my left ankle.”

Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis caused by a build-up of uric acid crystals in the joints. It can strike without warning and produces intense, burning pain — most commonly in the feet and ankles — that sufferers frequently describe as among the most severe pain a human body can experience. For a sport that requires a player to stand and throw for extended periods across multiple matches in a single evening, it is a uniquely difficult companion.

What makes it even harder to manage, Clayton explained, is its unpredictability. An attack can vanish as quickly as it arrives, which means there is no reliable way to plan around it.

“You could go back to bed tonight, wake up tomorrow as if there’s nothing there,” he said. “It is agony when it’s there. 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 counterintuitive solution, he found, was to keep moving. Sitting down, paradoxically, only made the ankle stiffen and the pain worsen. “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 Nottingham broadcast that Clayton’s throwing arm — the only thing that truly matters at the oche — remained entirely unaffected. “If it’s not your weight-bearing foot, you can get away with it,” Mardle observed, and Clayton proved as much with a doubles success rate of 67 per cent in the final against Humphries.

The decision to sit out Göttingen is a straightforward one given the circumstances. With Clayton eight points clear of Luke Littler in the Premier League standings and the top-four play-off places the season’s primary objective, there is no sense in risking further aggravation to a condition that has already caused enough trouble.

Night Seven is in Brighton next Thursday, live on Sky Sports from 7pm.