World No 1 Gerwyn Price has called for Alexandra Palace’s Darts Championship to be postponed after another Covid positive test.
Dave Chisnall became the third player to be forced out of the tournament on Wednesday after testing positive for coronavirus.
And Price, who said the tournament was ‘devalued’ due to the withdrawals this week, has demanded the showpiece event is called off altogether.
‘Now this tournament is devalued. I’d rather play the best to be the best, absolutely feel sick for these players having to pull out over Covid,’ he wrote on his Instagram story on Tuesday.
He said to his 141,000 followers on Wednesday: ‘Tournament needs to be postponed.’
Three-time champion Michael van Gerwen hit out at the event’s organisers after he had to pull out of the competition after a positive Covid test.
The latest withdrawal has raised fears that several big matches could end as walkovers with five days of action left.
World No 1 Gerwyn Price has called for the World Darts Championship to be postponed
Price said the tournament was ‘devalued’ after the first withdrawals and has now said it should be postponed after a third player was forced out of the competition
Dave Chisnall has become the third player to be forced out of the World Darts Championship
A PDC Darts statement on Wednesday read: ‘Dave Chisnall has withdrawn from the William Hill World Darts Championship after testing positive for Covid-19 ahead of his match with Luke Humphries.
‘Humphries will receive a bye to the last 16 and Wednesday afternoon’s session will continue with two matches.
‘Jose de Sousa will play Alan Soutar, and Nathan Aspinall then plays Callan Rydz.’
Michael Van Gerwen was forced out of World Darts Championship through Covid on Tuesday
Dutch darts legend Raymond van Barneveld revealed he had Covid after crashing out of the Championship at the weekend.
While Vincent van der Voort was ruled out of the tournament after testing positive for Covid, handing James Wade a bye into the fourth round.
Van Gerwen was the next high-profile star to test positive and he was less than impressed.
Van Gerwen tweeted on Tuesday night: ‘Really disappointed, confused, angry…..the way how my world championship is ending.
‘Never expected this outcome as I thought I did everything in my possibility to avoid it. Also ain’t got any symptoms.
Van Gerwen and Van Der Voort spent Christmas together before the latter contracted Covid
‘Closing this year of really quickly. Fans I’ll be back stronger!’
Van Gerwen was left less than impressed by the turn of events, which follows on from fellow countryman Vincent Van Der Voort having also tested positive and being forced into isolation.
‘Of course our health is the most important thing, but you are here to win the tournament,’ Van Gerwen told Dutch media outlet AD Sportwereld.
‘I never saw this coming. Vincent and I have been almost nowhere. We didn’t even go to the breakfast room (at the hotel), because we thought it was too busy there.
‘We get to sit here together now, but we had imagined this very differently. Again, this is really the biggest nightmare.
‘I test myself here every day. I don’t know where I got it. Yet we are the loser.’
