{"id":1858,"date":"2026-02-14T11:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1858\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T11:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:41:07","slug":"ive-got-a-bit-of-flu-but-we-have-to-carry-on-luke-littler-offers-explanation-for-defeat-in-antwerp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1858\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve got a bit of flu, but we have to carry on\u201d \u2013 Luke Littler offers explanation for defeat in Antwerp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Littler<\/a> has revealed that he was dealing with flu symptoms during Night 2 of the Premier League Darts<\/a> in Antwerp. The 19-year-old Englishman had another mixed evening, yet still managed to secure his first win of the season.In the quarterfinals, Littler saw off Luke Humphries to claim his first victory of the Premier League<\/a> 2026 campaign. In the semifinals, however, a rejuvenated Michael van Gerwen proved too strong. The Dutchman knocked out Littler before later losing the final to Gerwyn Price.\u201cA bit of flu, but this is darts\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Littler candidly admitted he wasn\u2019t at full fitness at the oche. “A bit of flu going on but this is darts, we\u2019ve just got to get on with it,” he said. “My game at the minute is going well, playing well. Last week didn\u2019t go to plan but it\u2019s a fresh week.”<\/p>\n

Despite the physical discomfort, Littler<\/a> still showed flashes of his top form. Against Humphries he was sharp on the doubles and steady in scoring. In the semifinals, however, he couldn\u2019t maintain that level against a strong-performing Van Gerwen.<\/p>\n

The teenage sensation sounded anything but concerned. “Everyone knows, I\u2019ve said it for the past two years, I\u2019ve won both European tours in Belgium, get a Premier League here. The PDC have sorted it.\u201d he joked, referring to his happy memories on Belgian soil.<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Luke Littler is currently fifth in the Premier League Darts 2026 standings<\/p>\n

No reason to panic<\/p>\n

After two match nights, Littler is not yet at the top of the table, but according to experts there\u2019s no reason to panic at all. Sky Sports analyst Laura Turner called for calm, both for Littler and Humphries. \u201cI think that just is a testament to how tough this tournament is,” said Turner. \u201cOne or two small slips, if you’re not feeling 100 per cent, anything can happen in these tournaments, and then you start thinking.”<\/p>\n

In her view, it\u2019s far too early to draw conclusions. “They are not going to start panicking yet, as this is just week two.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Littler has revealed that he was dealing with flu symptoms during Night 2 of the Premier League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19,1518,1356,1359],"class_list":{"0":"post-1858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-antwerp","8":"tag-antwerp","9":"tag-luke-littler","10":"tag-pdc","11":"tag-premier-league-darts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}