Michael van Gerwen says Peter Wright should retire from darts and said he was “not surprised” the two-time world champion was eliminated in the second round of the World Championships.
Wright suffered a 3-0 defeat to Germany’s Arno Melk on Tuesday, ending an already difficult 2025 with an early exit at Alexandra Palace.
Van Gerwen’s comments come a week after Wright claimed the Dutchman’s “vision is probably moving forward”.
“I wasn’t too surprised by his performance because he’s been playing badly lately,” van Gerwen said after his 3-1 win over William O’Connor.
“In any case, I think it’s time for him to retire.”
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Michael van Gerwen responds to claims Peter Wright’s eyesight may be failing at the World Darts Championship
Since losing in the first round of the World Championships at the end of 2023, Wright has gone on a significant downward spiral and has fallen down the rankings, and the 55-year-old will almost certainly fall outside the top 32 after this year’s Alexandra Palace tournament.
He won just two matches in the entire 2024 Premier League darts series and failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals in any televised ranking tournament for the past two years.
Another Scottish veteran and two-time world champion Gary Anderson says Wright needs to be given “a little time”.
“We can’t play well all the time. People think we’re robots and we have to play well all the time, otherwise you have a few bad games and you’re like, ‘He’s done, he’s retiring,'” he said.
“Give people a break. You can’t do that day in and day out. We’ve seen Michael van Gerwen do that for probably the last 10 years. He’s got an airship and it’s ‘that’s it, he’s done’.”
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Arno Merk defeated Peter Wright in the second round of the World Championship
Mardle: Wright should not make opportunistic decisions about the future
Wayne Mardle of Sky Sports Darts:
“It was a terrible game. I didn’t enjoy it one bit, watching a champion, a legend of our sport, someone who helped grow this sport.
“I don’t know what questions Peter will ask himself. Whether it’s something like, ‘Okay, I’ll keep going. I love this game.’ And I hope that happens.”
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Take a look at some of the Christmas costumes Peter Wright has entertained audiences at Alexandra Palace with over the years.
“He always said, ‘I don’t want to retire, I love him,’ so I don’t want him to have a surprise reaction because of what happened at the world championships.
“If you play like that elsewhere, that’s fine. I don’t think about it too much, but when you do it at the World Championships, I know it because I’ve done it, but it makes you question if you’re good enough to ever compete again.
“And it’s about competing, it’s about winning. He’s a winner. As you think about it, I hope he’s okay. I hope he doesn’t have these knee-jerk reactions like we’ve seen with other players, with the sleepless nights.”
“He is a classy ambassador for darts and brings not only that fun, but also incredible ability and class.”
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