Price has sympathy and is gluten free

GERWYN PRICE admits he has sympathy for Peter Wright’s struggles in the Premier League. 

The Livingston-born ace finally reached his first final in Birmingham last week, losing to Jonny Clayton. 

But Wright, 53, still remains bottom of the league after a campaign littered with defeats and family illness before facing Nathan Aspinall in Brighton tonight (Thursday).

In total contrast, Price is currently the most in-form player in the world. He said: “I said to my wife a couple of times, I have sat and spoken to Peter after maybe two or three of the Premier Leagues. “You can see he is down. I have been there. I have been in that situation and it is not nice. 

“As much as we are against each other on the oche, it is tough to see players going through that patch. 

“He is a good enough player, he will get through that. It is tough to see him going through it as well.”

The Welshman is currently second in the table and enjoying his best ever Premier League and takes on Chris Dobey tonight. 

But he also believes going gluten-free has changed made him a better player. 

He added: “I went gluten free for six, seven and eight weeks. I have started introducing bits of gluten back in. To see if it is just intolerance or if I have to be gluten-free for everything. 

“But it seems to put me in a better mood. I don’t know if that is just psychological, I am not sure. Everything just seems to be alright. “Most people will have ups and down, feel down for no reason some days. I haven’t had that for a while, which is good.

“I have been struggling for the last 5-6 years where my hands and my feet would swell in the heat. 

If I am walking around too long, I am on my feet all of the time playing darts. Sometimes my hands will help which don’t help. When I am on holidays in the heat it would happen, too. 

“So I just tried that. I have seen so many specialists to try and find out what the problem was. Nobody seemed to know. 

“So then I did a bit of research, maybe it could be the gluten or lactose in my diet. It has been trial and error really.”

Words by Phil Lanning.

Images by Taylor Lanning.