Luke Littler will not participate in the Nordic Masters this June due to family commitments, it has been revealed.
The talented teenager, 17, has taken the world by storm since his emergence at the PDC World Championships at the Ally Pally, where he enjoyed a fairytale run to the final before being beaten by Luke Humphries. Littler has continued to go from strength to strength, though, at various events since the Worlds.
Littler was rewarded for his exploits with a place in the Premier League and has gone on to win titles at the Bahrain Masters, Players Championship and Belgian Open this year - but he will not be able to add another accolade to his name in Copenhagen.
The PDC announced on Wednesday that Littler would not be part of the line-up for the Nordic Masters, which is due to take place across June 7-8. He is unable to compete due to family commitments and will be replaced in Denmark by UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Plenty has been made of Littler's gruelling schedule in recent months, particularly after he accepted the opportunity to become apart of the Premier League. He recently appeared on the Jonathan Ross show just before he beat Michael van Gerwen with a stunning nine-darter to win the Belgian Open.
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Littler has also been apart of Comic Relief and Sky's Fantasy Football show as media attention in him continues to rise. However, PDC chief executive Matt Porter has revealed that the youngster's schedule is heavily monitored on a daily basis to protect Littler from burnout.
Speaking on the Love The Darts podcast, Porter said of Littler: “The media demands are high, [we're] still getting a lot of requests for high-end content. We saw him on The Jonathan Ross Show, he's doing Comic Relief, there are a lot of A-list people that want to speak to Luke which is great for him and great for darts and it's important that is managed properly.
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Littler recently won the Belgian Open (OfficialPDC/X)“His manager Martin (Foulds) is excellent, his family are very supportive, we're involved and it's a team effort really just to make sure everything is geared around giving him the optimal opportunity to be the best he can on the oche and just get enough rest and time to himself to be a normal 17-year-old as best he can away from that.
“It's early days, it's hard to think we're only three months into the Luke Littler story but who knows how long it might last?”
Littler is currently third in the Premier League standings with 13 points after winning seven matches, a number only bested by Van Gerwen (nine) and Humphries (10). Littler will be bidding to win his first overall night in the competition in Dublin on Thursday.
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