Michael van Gerwen was euphoric on Monday evening after taking his sixth Premier League title. The 33-year-old Dutchman won the prestigious darts competition for the first time since 2019 after a blistering final (11-10) against Joe Cullen.
“It’s the way in which how much pressure there is on my shoulders and where I come from. It is everything that comes up briefly. Also think of the World Cup that I couldn’t finish because of corona. I had everything there no influence on it. Today I had influence on it and I showed it. After my three world titles, this is my best prize.”
Van Gerwen explains in a dressing room – which has been transformed into a press room – of the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin why his sixth Premier League title evokes so much in him. An hour after the thriller against Cullen, the adrenaline is still coursing through the body of ‘Mighty Mike’, who had stepped off the stage emotionally.
And that was not surprising given the course of the blistering final. The game went back and forth with a decisive 21st leg ultimately deciding who would walk away with €320,000 in prize money.
In that decisive leg, Cullen even missed a match dart. An arrow of 175,000 euros, it turns out later, since the number two can take home 145,000 euros. “I’ll tell you honestly: if it had gone in, you could have brushed me together. Then I would have been really sick,” says Van Gerwen.
Van Gerwen has been suffering from wrist for a year and a half
Moments later, Van Gerwen discusses his wrist injury in detail for the first time at the same press conference. De Brabander recently announced that he is undergoing surgery on his wrist the day after the Premier League play-offs because he is suffering from a nerve condition.
“I’ve had it for about eighteen to twenty months,” says the number three of the PDC Order of Merit. “It’s a bad feeling. Sometimes it flares up when I touch my hand, then it suddenly starts to tingle. It’s bothering me more and more and I know I have to do something about it.”
“I have tried everything, had injections to ensure that I would appear fit on the oche. But it can no longer be like this. I am in good hands with my doctor and have a lot of confidence that the operation will go well. “
Van Gerwen expects to be out of circulation for about a month and hopes to return to action at the World Matchplay, which starts on July 16.