Gerwyn Price has been ruled out of featuring for defending champions Wales at the 2024 BetVictor World Cup of Darts due to health issues.
Price partnered Jonny Clayton to victory over Scotland in last year’s final, their second World Cup title after also beating England to victory in 2020, and had been due to compete again in the doubles event.
The world No 4 has since been ruled out of this week’s tournament in Frankfurt, live on Sky Sports, with Jim Williams replacing him to represent Wales with Clayton.
“I’m massively disappointed that I’m having to miss the World Cup and I always love representing Wales,” Price said.
“I wish Jonny and Jim Williams the best of luck this weekend and hopefully they can bring back the title again!”
Williams gets the late call-up as the next highest-ranked Welsh player from the PDC Order of Merit and will make his World Cup debut.
Under PDC Rules, with the World Cup of Darts draw having been made for the group stage, Wales retain their status as the second seeds and will enter the event in Saturday’s second round at the Eissporthalle.
The top four ranked nations receive a bye through the first round, based on the lowest cumulative PDC Order of Merit ranking of the two competing players, while the remaining 36 teams will be split into 12 groups of three and only the winners progress to the last 16.
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Speaking before Gerwyn Price’s withdrawal, Germany’s Martin Schindler explained why he felt Wales were favourites to triumph at the upcoming World Cup of Darts.
The second round is split across two sessions on Saturday before the quarter-finals take place on Sunday afternoon, with the tournament culminating in the semi-finals and final on Sunday evening. The eventual champions to earn a combined £80,000 in prize money.
Top seeds and four-time champions England will be represented by world champion Luke Humphries – making his World Cup debut – and Michael Smith, but Luke Littler will not feature because the two highest-ranked English players in the PDC Order of Merit are picked.
Live World Cup of Darts
Thursday 27th June 6:00pm
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