Anderson undergoing specialist treatment ahead of new darts season

Gary Anderson has revealed he is receiving specialist back treatment after injury almost wrecked his world title hat-trick hopes.

Anderson was heavily beaten by rival Michael van Gerwen in the Semi-Finals at Ally Pally after admitting at one stage his back was “shot to bits”.

But the 48-year-old has since feature in one pro-celebrity tournament and undergone intensive physio since that last four hammering by MVG.

The first televised tournament of the season is the BetVictor Masters in a fortnight, and Anderson admitted: “The back has been bad for 18 months now. It’s not good at all to be honest.

“I’ve had no option but to try and get it sorted. It was getting progressively worse, to the point where I couldn’t go for double top in a match because it was giving me grief.

“It’s a long year ahead and a lot of tournaments. The most important thing now is to try and get fit.

“I’ll deal with it as best I can. I came through the World Championship despite the problems. I wouldn’t say that the back had much impact on losing to Michael in the semi-finals.

“He was just in one of those moods and when he’s like that he’s hard to stop. I wouldn’t say I played my best game but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“It was a tough tournament. Jermaine (Wattimena) and Chris (Dobey) gave me two really hard matches which I was probably lucky to get away with. I played my best against Dave (Chisnall) but that was it.

“You win some, you lose some. I’m not going to lose sleep over it. I’ve had a decent run making the semis four times out of the last five years, that’s not bad going.

“I’ll keep plugging away. I will pace myself though, that’s going to be the vital thing right now.”

Anderson has also started a raffle for his Champions League winning match shirt to raise money for Hazelwood School in Glasgow.

The bidding has zoomed up so far and is likely to buy the school iPads on even online maths games for kids. 

The social media post is on Anderson’s Glasgow-based management Dunvegan Darts Facebook and Twitter pages, and Anderson added: “I’m not one for keeping old shirts and memorabilia too much. So it’s nice if that shirt can do something good for kids.

“I chose Hazelwood because it’s a school for children with impaired eyesight and they need specialist equipment. 

“Hazelwood are one of the favourite charities of my manager Tommy Gilmour. Hazelwood have been really happy about it so I just hope it buys them loads of stuff.”