Phil Taylor has finally called time on his illustrious darts career as he retires earlier than planned following his withdrawal from the WSDT Seniors World Master due to injury.
Phil Taylor is undoubtedly the greatest darts player of all time.
The 16 time World Darts Championship winner and 16 time World Matchplay winner dominated darts for almost two decades and is one of the main reasons why darts grew in popularity so much throughout the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
A fierce competitor, Taylors commitment to darting success was unmatched and with 79 PDC major titles and hundreds of titles in total (non-ranked, invitational, opens, etc…), it’s hard to imagine anyone will ever come close to achieving what he did in the game.
At the 2018 World Darts Championship, Taylor would play his final tournament before retiring from professional darts, making it to the final before eventually losing to Rob Cross.
Taylor didn’t necessarily want to retire but injuries were affecting both his performance and quality of life.
In a recent interview with Online Darts, Taylor discussed the heartbreak he felt when trying to play through injury before retiring from the professional game in 2018.
Related – “It’s heartbreaking” – Taylor on difficulty playing towards the end of his career
Post-retirement he would still be active in the game as he joined the World Seniors Darts Tour in 2022, though was not the same force on the Seniors Tour as everyone was used to seeing.
Following hip replacement surgery earlier this year, Taylor announced this would be his final year playing darts and had confirmed his place for both the WSDT Seniors World Matchplay and WSDT Seniors World Masters.
Despite his plan, Taylor would have to withdraw from the WSDT Matchplay on doctors advice due to injury last month.
Taylor had said it was scar tissue from the surgery that he was having to rehab but had his sights set on the WSDT Masters to be his final tournament as a darts player.
Unfortunately, this week the draw was announced for the tournament taking place in early November and Phil Taylor’s name would not be included.
This means Taylors career has now officially ended at age 64. When planning for retirement, Taylor said:
“It’s been an unbelievable journey over the past 35 years and I’ve loved every minute of it.
“I’ll always love performing to the best of my ability, but time waits for no man and I know now is the right time to step away from the Tour.”
While it will be disappointing for fans that we won’t see him at the oche competing one last time, he will still be active in the sport and has even hinted he’d be open to coaching Luke Littler, under ‘one condition’…
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Phil Taylor Reveals He Would Be Open to Coaching Luke Littler
Speaking with talkSPORT on his official retirement, Taylor has said he’ll still be active in the darts community to do personal appearances, meet-and-greets, sign autographs, etc…
The most interesting take though is that he will be open to coaching and has even been contacted by Luke Littler’s management team. He told talkSPORT:
“With young Luke, they have asked me if I would sit down with him and I said, ‘Of course, I will.’ But I would have to go and live with him for a few days, see what he is all about.
“If I spent time with him, I would see how he practises, see how he eats and exercises, how he does anything.
“If he’s playing on one of those PlayStations, I would give him a set time – maybe an hour a night or something – and then get ready for the next day.
“Make sure you aren’t staying up too late and waking up in the morning and you are shattered.
“I have seen that so many times – players who will have a drink afterwards, they get into the drinking and then they aren’t getting to bed until 1am or 2am.”
It’s well documented that Littler is an avid FIFA fan bringing the game with him on tours to keep his Ultimate Team progressing so we’re not too sure he’d be keen on Taylor’s restriction to an hour a day 👀
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to take advice from the greatest to ever do it, especially when you have the ability that Luke has and could even be the NEXT Phil Taylor…
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