Clog almighty Michael van Gerwen believes it will be all bite on the night – despite ongoing dental surgery where his jaw is broken twice.
The three-times champion begins his quest for a fourth crown at the Paddy Power PDC World Championship on Tuesday with many fans unaware of his punishing schedule of orthodontic treatment. Van Gerwen, who faces Keane Barry in the second round at Alexandra Palace, shrugs off his regime of braces, dentures and operations under general anaesthetic as a trifling inconvenience.
Jaw blimey! But in 2023, MVG has still won the Premier League, the World Series and has reached two other major finals. Jaw blimey! He is second favourite, behind in-form Luke Humphries, to win his first world title at Ally Pally since 2019. Jaw blimey! And he faces more major facial surgery in July to complete the realignment of his gnashers. Van Gerwen revealed: “I have not finished the dental surgery yet – I am not even halfway.
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"After the World Matchplay I still need another operation where they are going to break my upper jaw and lower jaw and put them right on each other.
“After that, I'll be wearing a brace for two more years – then I am about finished. Between the first and second operations, there has to be a minimum of a year. My upper jaw is a lot smaller than my lower jaw, so my under-bite is over a centimetre. I can't even bite a slice of ham.
“If your upper jaw is too small, you get less oxygen through your nose and that causes headaches, less sleep, things like that. At one point you ignore it, and then you realise you have to do something about it.
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“You have to plan things, especially with my schedule, and it can make life difficult, but something has to happen. It was the same the year before with my wrist operation for Carpal tunnel syndrome. It has to happen, there are no other options.”
Van Gerwen was beaten finalist at Ally Pally last January, where Michael Smith's maiden world title was decorated by the greatest leg of darts, MVG missing double 12 for a perfect nine-darter before 'Bully Boy' stepped up to show him how it's done.
The Dutchman claims he has NEVER watched a replay of it, saying: “It was only one leg and I don't really care about all the fuss around it. Perfect darts? It’s history, but you need to keep looking to the future, not living in the past. It just happened, you move on.
“Unfortunately I was part of it. I haven’t watched it back. What's the point? I also lost the final against Andrew Gilding in the UK Open. Stupid b*****d, but it can happen. I've always said the big trees catch the wind, and I am a very big tree. The other players are still most happy when they beat me or when I am out of the tournament.
“It was the same story with Phil Taylor because he dominated the game for so long.” Irrespective of whether he wins another title over the next fortnight, Van Gerwen is already convinced, in his own mind, that his achievements supersede Raymond van Barneveld in any debate about the greatest Dutch player of all time.
“I don’t think there is even a conversation there,” he shrugged. 'He has five world titles, I have three, but of course Raymond won four Lakeside titles when Phil Taylor wasn’t there. It's like tennis – is Nadal better than Roger Federer, or is Federer was better than Novak Djokovic? Everyone has a different opinion.”
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