Luke Littler has hinted that he pulled out of a darts tournament to play computer games with a cheeky post on social media.
Littler decided not to compete at the Hungarian Darts Trophy in Budapest, with his absence from the tournament that runs from Friday to Sunday only announced on Thursday. The 17-year-old has been in superb form of late, further cementing his place at the top of the sport by winning the World Series finals and Players Championship 20.
But he saw his run of 15 straight victories ended by world No.70 Maik Kuivenhoven in the last 16 in Wigan on Wednesday night. And that defeat seems to have prompted a decision to take a well-earned break from the PDC tour schedule.
A post on his Instagram on Thursday read simply: “Enjoyed the last few days for sure” alongside two trophy emojis. But others couldn’t help notice that his weekend off from darts happened to coincide with the early access release of the latest FIFA game, EA FC 25.
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Littler is a huge fan of gaming and of FIFA’s Ultimate Team game mode in particular. He has previously opened UT packs during his walk-on at a Premier League match in February and has not tried to hide that he prefers gaming to playing darts in his spare time.
A SportsBible Instagram post noted that Littler had pulled out of playing in Budapest the day before the early release of EA FC 25. The teenager was happy to fuel the speculation, writing under the post: "What a coincidence” with a tongue-out emoji.
His comment has attracted nearly 12,000 likes, but his activity on Instagram suggests he is just taking some time off. On Thursday night his story contained a video of him climbing into a mate’s car followed by a picture of a Selfridges’ bag to the tune of Hypnotize by Notorious B.I.G.
Nevertheless, it is very likely that Littler will be dipping into the new FIFA game, given his previous comments about his love of gaming. Appearing on This Morning after his run to the final of the World Championship in January, he joked about spending some of his £200,000 prize money on FIFA points before explaining his approach to practising.
“Believe it or not, about half an hour, 45 minutes,” he said. “I just practise on my own and it gets boring. I’m just bored. My Xbox is next to me, there’s a board there, so I just go on my Xbox.”
He had brought his Xbox down from his home in Warrington to north London for the tournament and added that he couldn’t wait to get back playing. Having earned a whopping £625,000 in prize money since his breakthrough in January, he deserves some time off.
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