Sky Sports Darts’ Wayne Mardle fears Peter Wright may be close to the end of his career after his torrid form brought his Grand Slam of Darts campaign to a premature end.
A 5-1 defeat at the hands of John Cross on Monday night saw the two-time world champion bow out of the tournament in Wolverhampton having failed to win any of his three group matches.
Mardle revealed Wright had shared a scathing assessment of the state of his game at present, an alarming admission in the eyes of the Sky Sports pundit with less than five weeks to go until the start of the World Darts Championship.
“Peter Wright’s form is worrying,” Mardle said. “This is a period that has gone on for a while.
“I believe a positive result can mask problems that might be there, and I think the European Championships last year did that. That came out of the blue, it really did. A European Tour win this year came out of the blue too.
“He can still do it, but when he comes off, my word he’s off. He’s got no B game at all.
“He was upstairs joking with us saying how rubbish he is, but I felt like he meant it. He was joking about it, but I kind of felt for him at that point.”
Peter Wright bowed out of the Grand Slam of Darts after three group-stage defeats
Mardle, who retired from darts in 2012, stopped short of calling time on Wright’s career but suggested a last hurrah at the World Championships could provide a thrilling final chapter for Snakebite.
“We know how good he can be,” Mardle added. “But let’s be honest, he’s nearer the end of his career than the start.
“He was world champion two years ago but he’s 54 years of age – how many more good years would he have had anyway?
“If he finds another purple patch, another Peter Wright patch, he’ll be fine [at the World Championships], but he needs to find it now because this has gone on long enough.”
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