Michael van Gerwen launches ruthless attack on German darts rivals after skipping Berlin

has said that Germans are better at watching darts than playing it, in a ruthless dig against the country's best players. Dutchman Van Gerwen is sure to have riled up a few German fans with his comments, but he managed to escape their wrath by pulling out of last week's trip to Berlin, and the International Darts Open in Riesa over the weekend.

'Mighty Mike' withdrew from the most recent Premier League outing with a shoulder injury just hours before it got underway. He followed that up by ruling himself out of the subsequent Euro Tour outing, which was won by .

German fans had no homegrown heroes to cheer on in the Premier League last week, as none of their players were called up to the exclusive eight-player roster by the PDC. And only Martin Schindler had a decent crack at the International Darts Open title, with Nathan Aspinall defeating him in the semi-finals.

Van Gerwen kicked the nation's darts-mad supporters while they were down, telling : "Germans are better at watching darts than playing it. For such a large country, Germany is definitely performing below its potential. How is it possible that the Netherlands has so many better players?"

The Netherlands have three players inside the top 25 in the PDC Order of Merit, with Van Gerwen joined by compatriots Danny Noppert and Gian van Veen.

Despite the sport's strong following in Germany, 21st-ranked Schindler is their only representative, with Ricardo Pietreczko next on the list in 29th. Van Gerwen has not shied away from confrontation with players from the country that borders his homeland to the east.

At the 2023 World Darts Championship he tore into Pietreczko for failing to take his chances against Luke Humphries, forgetting his name and criticising his lack of mental strength.

"Humphries should have lost that game," he said. "What's his name again? Pietreczko. He doesn't have balls at all. That's the way it is. You need to make sure you focus yourself on your game, and whoever comes in your path you have to beat them."

Van Gerwen is scrambling to make it back for Night 10 of Premier League Darts in Manchester on Thursday. The three-time world champion has been drawn against Chris Dobey for his opening match, and he is still looking for his first nightly win of the year.